


Voltron: When Stars Become Angels (A Voltron Fanfic)

by Epifox



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst, Blood, Episode: s02e08 The Blade of Marmora, Eventual Romance, F/M, Fighting, Fluff, Galra Empire, Galra Keith (Voltron), Gay Sex, Gore, Kissing, M/M, Magic, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Quintessence, Romance, Sex, Slow Burn, Takes place after season 1, Violence, Voltron, Voltronlegendarydefender - Freeform, War, ultimate weapons
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-24
Updated: 2017-02-27
Packaged: 2018-09-11 18:33:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 16
Words: 76,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9001855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Epifox/pseuds/Epifox
Summary: When team Voltron discovers a human girl named Nara on a Galran mining frigate, it unleashes a whole new chapter to the adventure. Nara is the former pilot of the team sent to Kerberos to investigate how the original mission went wrong. The crew is captured, and Nara is subjected to bio-quintessional experimentation under Haggar's hands. She is given frightening power over the substance, and turned into a weapon of destruction.  Once discovered and rescued almost by accident, Shiro recognizes Nara as a fellow graduate of the garrison and she is allowed to join team Voltron. A whole new story unfolds upon this event, one full of fear, pain, and redemption. The Galra are coming, and team Voltron better be prepared for their darkest hours yet. (I DO NOT OWN VOLTRON OR ANYTHING AFFILIATED WITH IT.)





	1. Beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> Hello People! So I am writing this story because I came up with the character Nara one day and just thought "wow it'd be cool to make the story of Voltron with her in it". Thus, this creation of my mind was born. Anyways, the story begins about a month after the season finale. It is assumed that team Voltron finds each other without trouble and the story starts from there. Warning: You do need to have seen season one to understand some references that I will be making. Anyways, thank you all for reading and I'm gonna tell you now to buckle up because this bad boys gonna be long! XD

Keith snuck down the hallways of the Galran mining frigate as quietly as he could manage. There almost seemed to be a chill permeating the air around the paladin as he sprinted along.

" _The ship's quintessence storage has to be close by_ " he figured with a frustrated huff. His breath hitched as a group of guards rounded the corner towards him, forcing Keith to barrel roll down an adjacent passageway and sprint through a pair of sliding doors.

" _That was waaay too close"_ He thought while his heart pounded through his chest.

Keith wasn't one to usually run from a fight, but staying undetected was key to their mission. The paladin heaved a sigh of relief as the metal footsteps faded away behind him.

"You guys have any luck so far?" he spoke into his helmet transceiver.  
Shiro's voice answered "No, but the patrols are becoming more frequent the farther in we go, if it gets any worse we will need to abandon the mission, we can't risk getting caught."

The black paladin had a point, but Keith hated the thought of giving up. It sure as hell made his blood boil, but there wasn't anything he could do about it. He turned down a more brightly lit hallway and almost didn't stop himself in time before three robots guarding a large door could have seen him.

"Gotchya" the red paladin muttered under his breath as a smile crept up his pale face.  
"Big door and lots of guards had to mean something important was there, right?"

His beyard flashed brightly in his hand and materialized into a long, red and white sword. After counting to three, he charged into the guards. Keith swung wide and sliced through the first two robots with ease. They dropped to the ground in pieces. He looked up quickly and gave a grunt, for he barely ducked in time for a blast to whizz past his ear. The paladin jumped forward, pitching the sword sideways so it didn't stab him. At the end of his roll, he sliced straight up, cutting the final guard right in half. The boy gave a satisfied huff while he watched the dying sparks of the robot only for a moment before turning to the door. He placed one of the bot's broken hands on the doors scanner and it slid open. To the paladins surprise, the room was certainly far from a storage bay and contained no quintessence, or so he thought. His disappointment at finding what he thought was nothing certainly didn't last long. Upon taking in his surroundings Keith deduced the room was more of a large cell. A table with a strange assortment of tools and torturous devices backed the left wall while empty quintessence pods lined the right. He froze when his eyes focused on a mass in the middle of the room. There, hung from two chains connected to the ceiling, was a girl.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

The high pitched sound of scraping metal and blaster fire forced Nara to lift her heavy head and crack her eyes open. The chains that held her jingled at the movement. God did everything hurt. Her eyesight was blurry and going black fast, but she could just make out a figure clad in red armor staring at her through the open door. She tried to croak out any sort of sound, but she began to black out, and after another clang, everything went dark as she felt her body drop to the ground. When Nara came to, the world was blurry again and full of bright purple lights that moved at a high speed. She looked up and realized she was in the arms of the red boy. He was carrying her to God knows where, and she didn't know whether to be relieved or terrified, and it didnt help that her head hurt and something stung like wild fire from her neck to the bottom of her spine. She wanted to tell him to stop, please just stop moving for one second, but her throat was too dry. She could barely hear him say something to the extent of "Guys... not gon... believe this" into a red and white helmet. He kept talking in an urgent tone, but Nara couldn't make out any of it, for the pain was causing her consciousness to slip again. Yet, she did manage to hear him say a name. After hearing the boy repeat it again, the name Shiro became clear.

" _Shiro... That name... I know it... From somewherreeeee_ " Her thoughts whispered as the darkness took her once again.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Shiro stood with his arms crossed while listening to Pidge tap her foot impatiently.

"He should be back by now" she said with annoyance that covered underlying fear.

"Be patient Pidge, Keith said he was coming as fast as he could."  
As the words left Shiro's mouth, he couldn't help but wonder if the reassurance was for the green paladin or himself. He glanced down at his prosthetic right arm. The familiar halls of the galra ship only reminded him of his time as a prisoner, a time that he only had chopped memory fragments of. Considering what flashbacks he DID retain, Shiro was pretty sure he didn't even want to completely remember being the champion of the Galra.

During their search for the frigates quintessence storages, Keith had suddenly told everyone that he had found something big. Upon revealing it was a human, Shiro ordered Keith and Pidge back to where the green lion lay hidden by their makeshift entrance to the underbelly of the frigate.

"Shiro, what about blowing up the storage area? That’s a whole galra mining frigate gone from this system!" Pidge argued frantically.

"Plans changed, if we leave the frigate undetected, we may be able to come back and set the charges later on. If Keith is right about the girl’s condition, then she may not survive if we wait here any longer."  
The paladin's argument was interrupted by a sudden sound in his helmet.

"Uhhh guys, I think the frigate's scanners found the green lion, there are scout ships leaving the hangar." Hunk said frantically over the intercom.

"Damnit" Shiro swore under his breath and turned towards where the green lion sat outside the gaping hole in the ship.

"Lance, Hunk, do not engage unless we know for sure they found the lion, we may still be able to leave without being found."

"Roger that, but no promises, blue and I are ready for a fight!" Lance answered while Shiro imagined a cocky grin probably covering the kid’s face.

Before Shiro could scold him, Keith finally appeared in their hallway. The black paladin turned to face him.  
"Keith, finally, how is the...."  
He cut himself off when he saw the girl in Keith's arms.  
The girl's face was well defined and sunken in slightly due to starvation. Her hair was long and chocolate brown, and hung in waves that spilled over Keith's arms. A small scar crossed over the edge of her right eyebrow that stopped halfway down the side of her eyelid. She wore standard Galran prison attire that fit loosely on her thin body. Bruises and small cuts showed through where fabric was torn on her clothes. She was tall for a human girl, but had lost a lot of weight.  
It was a familiar picture from the past in the back of his mind that caused Shiro to stop mid sentence. Before he spoke again, blaster fire appeared behind Keith, causing the three paladins to jump into the green lion's open maw before being shot.

"Guys you gotta move, the scout ships found us!" Lance yelled as explosions sounded over the intercom.

To everyone's dismay, six Galran fighter crafts flew towards where the green lion was now getting ready for takeoff.  
"Everyone, retreat back to the castle!" Shiro commanded.

The Galran frigate was stationed at a small moon composed mostly of gases. This allowed the castle ship to remain in orbit on the far side of the moon just outside the Galrans scanning range. Yet, the comms between the paladins and the castle ship had been jammed while they were in the frigate.  
Once the the three lions dodged blaster fire from the fighter ships and were a good distance from the ship, Allura's voice came online.

"Paladins, what happened, how were you detected?" She asked in a panicked voice.

"Its a long story, but we'll tell it when we get back, for now we need a healing pod readied." Shiro replied, glancing at the girl leaning against the wall of the lion.

The princess surprisingly didn't question who the pod was for and left the intercom line. An explosion resounded behind the green lion as the yellow lion slammed into two of the fighters following them.  
"HahaH yes! Direct hit!" Hunk yelled in excitement.

The remaining four fighter ships were quickly taken down by blaster fire coming from the blue lion.

"Woot woot, four points! Beat that Hunk, you're down by two now!"

"Lance! It’s not a contest, stay focused on the fight." Keith said with an annoyed tone.

"Hmph, just trying to make it a little more fun, you're just jealous because you and red don't get to fight this time." Lance muttered.

Before an increasingly annoyed Keith could reply, Shiro shot him a glare that told him to stop. Keith turned to watch Pidge work the controls with a grunt.  
The castle ship came into view through the clouds of the gas moon. Once the bay doors of the green lion's hangar closed them off from space, Allura and Coran came running with a floating stretcher.  
Allura's eyes shot wide and her mouth opened to question upon seeing the girl in Shiro's arms, but closed once realizing the state of her health. There would be plenty of time for questions later.  
The group ran to the medical bay, the girl still unconscious on the stretcher. Coran left to run back to the bridge in case any more Galran fighters had followed the lions back, which surprisingly, none did. Hunk and Lance arrived from their respective hangars to see Allura and Shiro laying the girl in the cryo pod. Everyone watched in silence as a sssssshhhhhhhh fell over the room and ice crystals formed on the girl’s skin.


	2. Indecision

Shiro explained everything to Allura and Coran during dinner. Everyone listened respectfully as their leader retold the events of the past couple of hours in an informative and firm tone. Once finished, a confused look grew onto Allura's face.

"If the girl is a human, how did she end up in Zarkon's hands? I thought you said there were only three of you on your mission Shiro?"

"What if she's really an alien in disguise who we think was a prisoner but is actually meant to kill us!" Hunk exclaimed while suddenly standing up, making amusing hand gestures. Everyone looked at the yellow paladin in exasperation.

"What? I'm just saying, it could be possible..." the paladin said timidly as he sat back down. Allura sighed.

"We know she's human, her bioscans match that of the human species so it's impossible for her to be anything else. But in any case, I still want to know why she was in Galran hands?"

She turned back to Shiro after her last sentence, everyone else glancing towards him as well, as if he had any ideas. His silver-grey eyes went downcast towards his food goo, resting untouched on his plate.

"I honestly don't know princess, the crew for Kerberos consisted of three members, and our team's mission was the farthest space expedition in history." He looked back up at his teammates. "There is something that has been bothering me though. When I saw her, I immediately felt like I recognized her. I may be wrong, but she looks exactly like someone I graduated from the garrison with."

Sitting at Shiro's right, Lance suddenly piped in.

"thats crazy talk, if someone in your year was also trained for a space exploration mission it would have been on T.V.!" He exclaimed throwing his hands up into the air.

"Lance, Shiro's not crazy, if he says he recognizes the girl, then it's the truth." Keith interjected from across the table with a glare pointed at Lance. Lance turned to Keith and was about to retort a rude comment including Keith's mullet when Pidge stepped in.

"It may not be as impossible as we think, when I was sifting through classified files at the garrison about Kerberos (she ignored the disapproving look she received from Shiro for that comment), I found something interesting. The file showed the beginnings of another possible mission flight plan to Kerberos within the year, but I mostly ignored it because it was in its very early stages. I didn't get a chance to read into the files more before I was caught by officers, but the fact that it existed may be a clue to how she ended up in Galran hands."

Shiro lifted his metal hand to his face making a quizzical gesture.

"Hmmm, the girl that I remembered from the garrison was the same class pilot I was, she certainly had the qualifications to be a deep space exploration pilot."

"Not to mention she was pretty smokin am I right?" Lance commented with a smirk.

Allura ignored the blue paladin's comment and replied to Shiro's.

"In any case, we will be able to find out who she really is soon enough, the healing pod should be done within the next two Earth hours or so."

Lance perked his head up at Allura's statement, and a slight cocky smile barely revealed itself on his face. Yet, it was noticeable enough for the dark haired boy to see from his position across the table

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

After dinner finished, Lance left the room quietly while Shiro spoke with Allura, and Coran gave a speech about the nutritional importance of space goo to everyone else. Keith watched Lance go with a suspicion bubbling in his mind.

"I'm gonna head back to my room, I'll catch up with you guys later." As he rose from his seat, his statement earned him a quick glance from Shiro and a barely audible grunt of recognition from Hunk and Pidge as they all returned to their respective conversations.

He arrived at his room, only to stop with his hand resting on the door frame. His eyes travelled to Lance's door, causing his inkling suspicion to grow. He opened the blue paladin's door only to find it empty.

"God dammit Lance." He heaved with a frustrated sigh

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Lance stared at the cryo pod with great interest directed towards its slumbering guest. She slept peacefully, and Lance couldn't help but notice that the sunkenness of her face had mostly faded away, and the bruises along with it. He found himself trying to think of ways to cleverly introduce himself once she awoke. He was so deep in his thoughts of smooth pick up lines that he didn't notice Keith walk in.

"Lance what the hell are you doing."

The blue paladin jumped at the sudden noise and turned to Keith with slimmed eyes.

"What does it look like I'm doing? I am waiting to politely help our poor new friend once she awakens from cryosleep." He said with a smirk.

"Yea, right, and I'm president of the freaking galaxy; Lance we're supposed to leave her alone, she may wake up in shock and NOT a flirting mood." Keith retorted while crossing his arms.

"So you admit she could possibly flirt back?"

"I'm not admitting anything, besides you're flirting skills are about as smooth as the surface of a balmera!"

"Oh yea? Well mullet-head, you're probably just jealous that I don't have the skin color of a SICK ARUSIAN!"

"WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT EVEN HAVE TO DO WITH YOU FLIRTING?"

The two boys were in each others faces now, with fists clenched and tensions rising towards a fight. If not for the completely idiotic argument, they might have noticed two glowing eyes emanating from the cryopod before the glass shattered

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Everything was cold. That's the first thing Nara noticed when she awoke in the cryopod. Scattered memories came back to her about her possible further imprisonment or rescue, for Nara did not know, and she began to panick. Her back didn't sting as badly as before, but it still itched. She couldn't move, and her fears rose even higher until a wierd feeling trailed through her nerves straight to her spine. She felt her body heat up until a strange glow surrounded her. Suddenly, the quickly heated glass shattered from stress in front of her, and Nara fell from her bonds. Looking up from where she landed in the pile of glass, her normally hazel brown eyes (that unbeknownst to her shone violet) met with two other pairs of eyes as black as ebony and blue as the ocean. She scrambled onto her feet quickly, grabbing for the largest chunk of glass to use as a weapon.

"Woah woah waoh, calm down chill out!" The blue eyed one exclaimed while Nara pointed the shard at the two boys in fear.

A thousand questions ran through Nara's mind all at once, making the girl even more frantic.

" _Where am I, why am I here, Who are these people, and why is my back burning so badly?_ "

She croaked out in a shaky voice, "Who are you people, wh-h-here am I?"

"Hey take it easy, don't worry we won't hurt you, please put away...whatever that thing on your back is!". The reassurance came from the pale, dark haired boy.

Nara could tell they were younger than her and most likely not a threat. Yet, she couldn't take any chances, not after what she's been through.

" _The thing on my back? What..._ " She thought in confusion before one word came to her mind.

" _Galra.... But what does that mean to me_?"

"Where the hell am I, TELL ME!" Nara demanded in an even more panicked tone. She backed towards the sliding doors slowly, never allowing her gaze to leave the two boys. She then heard the door open behind her.

"Lance, Keith what are you guys doing in... " Shiro walked in the door only to stop completely still upon taking in the scene in front of him

. . . . . . . .

Nara turned abruptly to face the newcomer, the glass shard beginning to cut her skin as she gripped it tighter.

"Woooaaaah there, hey take it easy, calm down we're not gonna hurt you okay?" Shiro held his hands up, speaking slowly to try and calm the raging girl. She was still in prison uniform, and her eyes narrowed as they fell on Shiro. He watched as diamond-shaped objects that seemed to float in purple bulges glowed on both sides of her. The glowing liquid emanated from her back, and with its presence Shiro remained wary, for she may use the strange objects to harm his comrades. His fingers on his prosthetic twitched, ready to charge up at any moment. After hearing him speak, Nara's eyes almost bugged out of her head.

"Ta...ta... Takashi... Shirogane?..." she uttered in disbelief as her defensive stance faltered. The objects and glowing liquid slid back into something that Shiro could not see on Nara's backside and her eyes went from bright shining violet to an ordinary chestnut brown. He couldn't help but notice the shocked looks on Keith and Lances faces though, for they could see whatever her back was doing.

"No no no no... That's not right, it's impossible, you're dead..." She almost seemed to whimper to herself.

"No no, Nara please listen to me, I am alive, and there's a lot to explain but we need you to Calm. Down."

Her eyes softened at the mention of her name. Shiro prayed that Nara would listen to his words. He watched hesitantly as Nara's eyes darted from Lance and Keith back to him, almost as if she were debating something, until her eyes rose upwared to meet his. While watching his mercury-colored eyes, she finally let the glass fall from her hand. 

"Okay… I will… Listen, for now." Were the only words she could muster up the courage to mutter.

Shiro gave her a warm smile, and the two boys behind Nara let out sighs of relief, the blue one almost fainting from fright.


	3. Explanation

After fixing up her hand, Nara was led into a large room with a solitary table in the middle. Four very different people sitting at the table looked up at their entrance. The hall itself was huge. Large, metallic, triangular pillars attached to the wall surrounded the room making it an oval. Shining blue lights on the pillars and in the dizzyingly high ceiling lit the room. As she oogled at the lights in awe, Shiro walked her to the table, and she sat down next to one of the strangers, her deeply troubled eyes landing on Shiro's prosthetic arm.

_"That can't be Shiro, this man may resemble him but Shiro never had a prosthetic, or icy tips, or... Such a noticeable scar..."_

The tall, well-built man stopped behind Nara and crossed his arms. When she turned and sat down with eyes closed, an audible clink resounded through the air where her back hit the chair. Shoulders tensing, her eyes shot open in surprise.

" _What was that sound?_ " She tried to think of anything it could be, but to no avail.

" _God, why is everything in my head so muddled?_ " She wondered in confusion. There were small bits and pieces, but she couldn't remember much since she awoke from the cryo pod, possibly due to the shock the former prisoner had experienced. Waking up in a strange place with a dead man casually walk in after being tortured for months on end was... disorienting to say in the least. Nara noticed a questioning look shadow the beautiful woman's face who sat next to her, but it quickly turned into a smile.

She was in awe at how gorgeous the woman was, if she was even a human at all. Her snowy white hair hung in waves, cascading far past her toned cheekbones. The strangers skin was a chocolate brown, a stark contrast to her hair, and her eyes shined like sky blue diamonds. Her ears came to pointed tips and two pink triangles marked the skin under her eyes, making Nara further question if the woman wasn't human. Nara sat with her mouth slightly agape, for it's not like she's seen anyone so well kept in a very long time. When the woman spoke, a thick accent rolled from her mouth with each word.

"Hello... Nara is it?" The woman questioned. She nodded back silently, closing her mouth.

"Good!" She exclaimed clapping her hands making Nara jump slightly. The man standing behind Allura smiled.

"My name is Princess Allura of Altaea, but just Allura will be fine, and this is my advisor Coran." She turned to face a well dressed man on the older side of the age spectrum. He sported bright orange hair and a mustache of the same color. His clothes resembled the style of the princesses, and were extremely ornamental. Coran smiled and bowed in recognition. Turning back to Nara, the princess continued.

"This is my castle, the Castle of Lions- She motioned to the room around them, and then turned to the rest of the group. "- and these are the Paladins of Voltron!".

Nara looked over to the group in front of her.

" _Strange, almost all of them look younger than me, but then again, what is Altaean, and what the heck is a voltron?_ " She questioned in her head.

One of the boys was on the larger side, and retained a thick head of dark hair held back by a yellow band. The two boys Nara had met earlier stood behind him. They had similar lanky builds, but appeared very different, for one was pale with long, thick black hair and the other was extremely tan with hazel brown hair. Sitting next to yellow-headband was a young girl. Her hair was a russet color and very short and she adjusted a large pair of round-lensed glasses sitting on the ridge of her pointed nose. During her analysis of the team, the blue eyed boy with brown hair stepped forward.

"Hey there pretty lady, names Lance, but I can be whatever you want me to..."

His cockiness was cut off by the paler boy.

"Lance knock it off, seriously!" He said curtly.

"What? I'm just trying to make her feel welcome, quit trying to kill my game Keith!"

" _Allura, Lance, Coran, Keith... And possibly Shiro, I should keep track of their names._ "

"Well maybe we should be asking her something important, like why the hell she was on a Galran mining frigate in the middle of freaking space!" Keith retorted.

At the mention of the galra, something began tugging at the back of Nara's mind. She didn't think on it long though, for a sharp comment from Shiro pulled her from her thoughts.

"Lance, Keith, both of you knock it off, let's hear her side of the story before jumping to conclusions." The girl jumped at the commanding voice that resounded behind her. She had almost forgotten that the possible Takashi imposter was standing there. Nara's back had made a metallic scraping sound when she flinched, but apparently it was only audible to her, which wasn't important because Allura suddenly stood slamming both of her hands on the table.

"All of you stop, this is no way to be treating a guest! Keith, we do not interrogate people who aren't prisoners, Altaens believe in peace before conflict!" Allura turned back to Nara while she sat down, and in a softer voice added, "I am deeply sorry Nara, it is not our intent to make you feel uncomfortable in any way. Yet, we do have many questions though, and we hope that you can answer them."

Nara finally spoke for the first time since her "episode" in the medical bay.

"It's... Alright, I will, answer your questions to the best of my ability." The weird tug was still pulling at the back of her mind, but her focus wss once again turned elsewhere.

"Well at least we know she speaks, that's a plus right?" The boy with the yellow headband said while shrugging his broad shoulders.

Keith interjected again with a huff.

"Guys, I'm just saying, we don't know anything about her, I don't mean to be rude princess, but it would be nice to learn a little background information on her, not to mention what the hell is that thing on her back? For all we know she could be a Galran spy!"

" _Galran, that word again, it's familiar... Galran.. Galran....!_ "

All of a sudden, the pull in Nara's head became a hard snap. Images began to flood her mind, like a dam had broken in her head. They were full of pain and bright flashes that she couldn't process all at once. It was her turn to stand up now, and she did so abruptly enough that the chair behind her clashed as it overturned. Choppy memories of her time in the druids hands caused her to start gasping rapidly.

" _Screams, blood, suffering, my back, pain, so. much. pain!_ "

Nara couldn't catch her breath and was barely aware of the blurred movement around her. She started shaking uncontrollably and wrapped her arms around her body.

"I am NO Galran spy, and I will NEVER be one of THEM" she muttured in a sharp tone. Her back felt like it was on fire again, but thankfully nothing that would appear strange to her saviors happened. Two hands on her shoulders snapped her out of her panic.

"Hey, don't worry, you're okay you're safe, look at me alright?" Shiro's voice calmly commanded. Shiro absolutely towered over her, causing her to looked up into the man's eyes, who were black like Keith's, but not in a sharp way. They retained a soft, serene quality to them that almost seemed to force her to calm down. Nara felt like she could get lost looking in the swirling black pools for what felt like forever. He had the same wonderful eyes as the cadet she knew from so long ago. As she gazed longingly into the flash from the pas, her breathing began to even out.

"That's it, see, you're fine, we won't hurt you, I promise." He said smiling while removing his hands from her shoulders. Nara still couldn't decide if she trusted him, of this really was Shiro, but still found that his words made her relax at least a little bit. She collected herself, turned to meet the wide eyes of everyone around her, and saw Keith standing defensively with some sort of red device ready in his hand.

"Keith, that won't be necessary"

Another palm, belonging to Allura, softly rested on her shoulder.

"Nara, if you are not ready to explain anything yet, we understand if you need more time..."

"No, it's okay, I just had a hard time absorbing everything that happened after leaving the cryopod, everything kind of just... Flooded back." Nara replied with a calming sigh.

" _I need to stay collected, I can't show anything, they're already jumpy enough around me._ " She was thankful that the device on her back hadn't reacted to her panic attack. A new realization struck her though, for her stomach felt like it was imploding at this point.

"I think I can explain, but if its okay, could I have something to eat first?" She asked timidly.

Cryostasis may have helped replenish nutrients, but her stomach still growled loudly. Everyone laughed upon hearing the grumbling, breaking down the tension in the room. Nara blushed happily, cracking a miniscule smile for what felt like the first time in forever

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Shiro took a seat next to Nara while she devoured the food goo. The girl eyed him cautiously as he sat down, which wasn't too threatening since her cheeks were filled with the green food. Shiro really couldn't blame her for being wary of the team. He noticed the tired bags under her eyes and the fading bruises that trailed up her arm. Her Galran uniform was torn and ragged, reminding him of his own time as a prisoner.

" _She's just like I was before._ "

Her hazel eyes narrowed, and she swallowed with a loud gulp. Shiro noticed something unsettling deep within them.

" _Fear"_

 _"She may be good at hiding it on the outside, but she's terrified_." He thought, feeling a pang of sympathy for her.

Nara's eyes remained locked with his as she spoke. "Before I say anything, I want to know if you really are Takashi Shirogane, you sound like him and resemble his looks, but you're... Different."

Shiro could tell she was trying to sound confident, but still picked up the slight quiver in her voice. He gave a deep sigh.

"I promise you that I am Takashi Shirogane. The reason I look different was because I was also taken prisoner by the Galra."

Her eyes widened as he continued.

"I'll explain everything, but we really need to know what happened to you... Why were you on the mining frigate, and what happened to your back?"

She looked down nodding.

"I guess I should start from the beginning, but I have to warn you, some parts are a bit foggy." She sighed deeply and everyone went completely quiet.

"Three days after the news of the crash on Kerberos reached media headlines, I was taken to the galaxy garrison. Once there, I was debriefed with two other men by officers on a classified situation. They swore us into secrecy before explaining that there really was no crash on Kerberos." Nara paused for a moment. "They told the three of us that we were chosen to be sent on a top secret reconnaissance mission to Kerberos. The plan was to investigate what happened to the crew and their spacecraft. They didn't tell us anything more except where we were going to train and prepare."

Her eyes flickered again momentarily towards Shiro. Leaning back, he crossed his arms and nodded for her to continue.

"The three of us trained together at a secret facility, just north of the garrison. The two men in my crew were n-named Andrew Bolteri a-and Niel Sherman. Andrew was an analyst while Niel was our engineer and back-up pilot. I was the head pilot."

"They were in our class as well" Shiro noted out loud. She nodded in reply. He couldn't help noticing how her voice had caught at mentioning their names, but it had quickly returned to normal.

"Barely anybody knew of our true mission, we weren't even completely given our full objectives until the day before launch...."

"Hang on a sec." Pidge interrupted abruptly.

"The only other deep space mission scheduled for the whole year, besides Kerberos, was a maintenance flight for a satellite on the edge of the Kuiper Belt... There's no way the government could hide another mission to Kerberos, there are just too many ways for people to find out- " Lance suddenly cut in. "Yea like the fact that people would notice if a random giant spacecraft was launched from the U.S., it would have been all over the news!" He exclaimed while throwing his hands up in the air.

"Guys, I'm sure there's an explanation if we just wait to hear it." Shiro claimed with a slight edge in his voice, then paused before stating his next thought in a more questioning tone.

"Pidge does have a point though-" Lance opened his mouth to argue about lack of mentioning him as well, but Shiro shot him an annoyed glance. "- It would be impossible for the government to hide a mission of that caliber, all of the information related to Kerberos was public, it had to be published by international law."

Nara leaned forward, crossing her arms over each other, elbows resting on the table.

"Not unless the public DID know about the mission." Confused looks arose on everyone's faces. Nara looked at Pidge. "Did you happen to know who was chosen for the mission?"

"Well... no, I was focused on... Other things." Pidge replied sheepishly.

"My point is, the maintenance mission wasn't exciting in the public eyes, therefore nobody paid much attention to it. If you had checked that roster, Andrew, Niel, and I would have come up."

Nara's eyes went downcast towards her plate.

"The maintenance WAS our mission, just given a different name, the only thing hidden from the public was the objective. There was a possibility for us finding out information on Kerberos that would need to be classified. Therefore, it was legal for the government to hide the mission's true objectives under protection of the people."

Nara leaned back into her chair, her eyes remaining on the empty plate. Her tone turned extremely somber.

"That is, if we HAD made it to Kerberos..."


	4. Metal in the Blood

"What do you mean if you had made it to Kerberos?" Allura questioned.

Nara looked back up with her eyebrows raised.

"What I mean is we never actually made it to the surface to investigate." Her eyes slid back down and began to study the slits in the table."Our ship was very close to the moon, literally in the upper atmosphere, and we were prepared to land. But, something was strange. Just like the garrison had informed us, there was no debris from the missing vessel's last location coming up on the scanners. Instead, there was a huge crater, like someone took a giant knife and scraped a huge scar onto the moons surface. We were pretty confused, nobody told us about the crater, but another problem showed up. Andrew said something strange was coming up on radar. We thought it could have been your missing ship, but it was airborne and showed to be much bigger." She quickly glance at Shiro, who was also looking at the table, deep in thought. "The craft was like nothing we had ever seen before. For starters, it really was gigantic, bigger than anything we had ever seen on Earth before. When we tried to make contact with mission control, our instruments suddenly went haywire, and a purple beam shot at us from the ship and pulled us in. We could make out the inside of the ship's hangar but didn't see much because they sent an electrical current through the ship that knocked us out. When I came to, the three of us were in shackles inside a metal prison cell. We learned the place was alien pretty quickly, strange creatures were able to communicate words like prison to us. There were hundreds of cells lining the walls from what we could see; it was like a green-lit chasm, and the robotic guards that patrolled were way more advanced than any technology I'd seen. They came for us eventually, and told us to come quietly. Niel tried to take the guard's gun, and they knocked us all out again. This time we woke up in a larger cell, but unlike the last one, the lights were dark violet."

Shiro commented on Nara's statement.

"This is almost exactly what happened to me, it sounds like the prison ship was the same one that took the Holt's and I. If your second cell was lit violet, you must have been shipped from the scout craft to Zarkon's main prison ship."

Nara nodded and continued, but paused before doing so.

" _Am I even going to be able to talk about this part_?" She wondered to herself. Nara inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly.

"When we were taken t-to the m-mai-n p-p-prison, w-we....I mean, Andrew a-a-and Niel..." Her voice began to break.

" _I knew it, I can't admit the truth, I just can't do it._ " She looked up into everyones expectant gazes, tears stinging the back of her eyes.

" _I can tell a version of the truth, I have to give them something._ "

"What happened to Andrew and Niel, Nara?" Allura questioned softly. Nara cleared her throat.

"They were taken to the work camps while I was left behind, a guard told me I was to be a replacement of someone called the champion."

Shiro visibly flinched on her left, looking back up at Nara.

"You were taken to the druids... _Weren't_ you?" He said slowly. Nara nodded.

"This is where things get a little fuzzy. What I remember is that they experimented and... Added... Onto me, like I was some toy. They put this thing on my back, intending to turn me into their own weapon, or something." She sobbed out to her embarrassment.

"May we see what is on your back?" Allura asked. Nara nodded again, standing up. She pulled up the back of her prison garb to reveal the machine embedded within her.

. . . . . . . . .

Shiro's eyes widened as Nara pulled up the back of her shirt, an audible gasp emanating from everyone except himself. A diamond shaped, metal mass decorated in galran tatoos was fitted into her back. They couldn't see much of where the metal met skin, for her prison jumpsuit was cut around it. Tears in the cloth did manage to show purple veins snaking through her skin. The machine had similar design to the paladins own jetpacks from the two slits that lined both sides, making openings for something to come out, but the difference was that the openings were longer and more horizontal. The device came to points just below her neck and above where her hips began, completely symmetrical with her spine. Coran, Lance, and Keith looked down at the table after a second, knitting their eyebrows together in disgust. Allura and Hunk held their hands to their mouths, Allura in shock and Hunk like he was stopping himself from vomiting. Pidge stared with wide eyes like she was analyzing every detail. And Shiro, well he couldn't bring himself to tear his eyes away.

" _They did this to her because she was human, like ME, because I was a success. Because I was champion. It's my fault..._ " Shiro thought in disgust and guilt.

"Thank you Nara, I think that is enough" Allura said, barely audible. Nara lowered her shirt back down silently.

"Does it hurt at all?" Pidge asked. Nara shook her head.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have shown you all that." She whispered.

"Nara, do not worry, it is alright. All it does is assist us by giving us more information on the galra." Allura replied.

"Yea! Besides, I bet that thing gives you mad fighting power, you must be a badass like Shiro in a fight!" Lance piped up in an attempt to raise the mood of the room.

"Probably doesn't even need that thing to be a better fighter than you Lance" Keith muttered with a smirk.

"Ok, WHAT the Hell is your pro..."

"IN ANY CASE-" Allura interrupted before Lance and Keith could begin to fight.

"-Nara, is that all you can tell us? You have given us an immense amount of information, but do you know why you were on the mining frigate?"

Nara knitted her eyebrows together.

"Like I said, its a little fuzzy, but this thing is powered by quintessence, and A LOT of it at that, so I think they sent me there because I needed to be, well, recharged often. It could have been out of convenience since there was so much quintessence on the frigate." Nara figured. "Besides that, I've honestly told you everything."

She felt terrible for withholding information from her new comrades, but she still wasn't technically lying.

" _I can't tell them the truth, not until I can face it myself."_ Allura interrupted her guilty thoughts.

"Well Nara, I believe it is time for you to hear our story..."


	5. The Band of Misfits

Shiro began the story by explaining how he was captured by the galra. He went over everything he was able to recall, from the mission launch to after the crew's capture.

"I honestly don't remember too much of my time as a prisoner, just bits and pieces that are slowly coming back to me over time."

He hesitated, not knowing how she would react upon admitting that he was the one known as champion.

"Yet...Most of the memories I do have are from my time in the gladiator ring... From when I became their champion."

Nara's eye locked with his, her mouth open in shock.

"YOU were the one they called champion?" To Shiro's relief her tone was more questioning than accusing.

"Yes, for awhile, at least until I escaped." He said while able to change the subject.

Her eyes lowered from his as she nodded.

"I think it's Lances turn to explain the next part." Lance said with his hand raised like it was a volunteer option.

"I definitely don't think that's a good idea." Keith muttured while leaning back in his chair, his arms folded.

"Like you could do it any better!" Lance exclaimed, turning towards the red paladin.

"I think I should be the one to continue the story, after all I'm the one who even intercepted the galrans chatter about voltron on Earth." Pidge interjected.

"I second that; Lance, you would probably add some fake elements to the story, like you almost defeating Zarkon with a fork or something." Hunk agreed.

Pidge adjusted her glasses with a victorious smirk. Before Shiro could get the chance to tell them to stop arguing, Allura huffed with one hand holding her knitted eyebrows, her tone growing ever more annoyed.

"Will someone please just continue the story?" Shiro noticed Nara give a slight chuckle at the bickering. He didn't know why, but this made him smile as Pidge retold everything up to arriving at the castle.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

"-And that is the entirety of our journey so far."

Allura was the one to finish the story; she had picked up at the part when the paladins had met the Altaens since she could better explain the purpose of the paladin's and their lion's history. Nara felt her head spinning.

"So the basic run down is that you guys- she gestured to the now standing paladins (The group had moved into the black lions hangar in order to better explain what the lions were) "- are space knights who fly around in robot lions that make an even bigger robot in order to fight the galra?"

It was a lot to wrap her head around, from understanding the idea of transforming space robots to the fact that Pidge was actually member of the Holt family.

" _Talk about fascinating coincidence..._ "

Her thoughts were once again interrupted by Allura.

"We know it's a lot to take in, especially after what you've been through." Her hand rested on Nara's shoulder as she smiled at the teams new comrade.

" _We may be the same height, but her presence is certainly powerful_ "

She couldn't help noticing how everyone, even Keith, seemed to completely respect the princess.

" _It's almost like I really could trust her with anything, with the truth... Almost..._ "

She refocused on her surroundings as Allura continued, removing her hand from Nara's shoulder.

"I think we all deserve a slight rest after today's events. After all, the castle should be well hidden under the thick atmosphere of this super moon. We will depart after making sure no threats are waiting for us up above."

After the retreat earlier that day, Coran had landed the castle on a seperate moon from which the galra were stationed. There was something loose within one of the engines, therefore the castle needed repairing before they could take off again. The moon's stormy, electrified atmosphere disrupted fine technological instruments, such as the castle's and galran's radars for example. So thankfully, they were safe out of Galran eyes, for now.

"Pidge, will you be kind enough to show Nara to one of the spare rooms?"

"Sure, follow me." Pidge replied, motioning for Nara to follow. She walked out of the hangar with Pidge nervously, feeling a pair of silver eyes locked onto her backside like daggars.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Pidge and Nara followed an increasingly confusing set of hallways that Pidge seemed to know by heart.

" _Geez this place is huge, it's a wonder how anyone finds their way here._ " Nara thought in amazement as she gazed at the high ceiling above her and her companion. She glanced at Pidge, feeling a pang of sympathy for the poor girl.

" _I guess after being here for so long it makes sense for her to know the passages, I can't believe she really is Katie-_ "

"Ah I'm sorry what was that?" Nara asked guiltily, realizing Pidge had been speaking to her.

"Well, its just that, I was wondering if you've..." Pidge faltered a bit, then while looking down at the ground, finally found the right words. "Did you happen to see any traces of my brother and father while you were imprisoned?"

" _There it is_ " Nara said in her mind. She knew this question would come after learning the girls identity.

"I'm sorry Pidge, I was never sent to the labor camps, I didn't even know other humans had been on board besides my crew."

Her eyes went downcast as well, unwilling to see Pidges disappointment.

"Oh, it's okay don't worry, thank you for being honest with me." Pidge whispered sadly.

Her eyes perked up immediately at their destination, as if in an attempt to hide her sorrow.

"Ahah, here we are, this will be your room." Pidge put her hand on the first of many doors that lined the long corridor.

"If you need anyone, someone will most likely be at the bridge. Down that hallway, take two lefts, go up the big stairs, and it will be straight ahead." She explained to an increasingly confused Nara while pointing straight ahead.

"Heh, thanks Pidge, I'll be sure to go there if I need help" Nara replied while scratching the back of her head.

"If you don't find anyone at the bridge, come back here and just start knocking on doors, someones bound to be in their room at some point." She called back while walking away.

" _Well that's helpful..._ "

With a sigh, she put her hand on the door scanner and it slid open with a swish. The entire room was metal (except the bed), giving it a clean shimmer. A thin, blue-lit, rectangle ran across the three inner walls, lighting the room. A mattress with sheets and a single pillow was fitted into the wall on Nara's left, while hangars (at least thats what she assumed they were) lined the wall on her right. Just below the hangars was some sort of box-shaped chute. The door slid shut behind her, leaving Nara completely alone for the first time since before Keith found her. She looked down and made a disgusted grunt at her prison uniform which she hadn't had a chance to change out of.

" _I guess I should have asked Pidge for some spare clothes._ " While wondering if the small girl would even have garments that fit the much taller woman, the chute made a loud clang. Nara yelped in suprise, jumping back towards the bed. She peered curiously at the chute and reached her hand in. To her suprise, she pulled out a small pile of very soft clothing.

" _Are these really for me?_ "

She chastised herself for thinking such a stupid thing, but still couldn't help wondering, for the clothes really were nice. A voice came from the dial beneath the door scanner, causing Nara to have yet another slight heart attack.

"Hello Nara, I hope you are comfortable in your new room."

It was Allura's voice.

"We will need to get you properly fitted for a spacesuit later on, but for now you may borrow my clothes. Please accept the outfit located within the chute, and come to me if you have any questions, rest well!"

A small beep sounded, indicating the message was finished. Nara looked down at the new outfit in her hands.

" _It sure has been a long time since I've worn new clothing..._ "

The outfit was consisted of a longsleeve, pants, and vest. The longsleeve was the closest to normal Earth clothing. It was charcoal black and modestly styled, but still looked like it would be a tight fit. Gold bangles lined the ends of the sleeves. The pants were a smoke gray and resembled that of skinny jeans. Large, white geometric shapes snaked around the back of the calves and lined the pockets of the strange pants. The final article was a gray vest that showed off a similar white geometric design as the pants. The vest was very short, ending just above where Nara's belly would show if she didn't wear the shirt underneath.

" _I should probably take advantage of a shower._ " She thought in embarrassment, realizing she probably smelled terrible. Nara folded the clothes back up into her arms, opened the door, and peered out into the hallway.

" _Well if these are the living quarters then showers must be nearby right?_ "

Nara was happy to find her assumption correct as a door in the adjacent hallway slid open to what resembled a futuristic lockerroom. Showers with opaque dividers lined the walls to her right.

" _Alright, let's get this over with quick._ " Nara thought to herself, praying that the large room would remain unoccupied

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Allura and Coran stood curiously over the engine schematic that lined the holoscreen in the bridge. After story time had finished, Hunk and Lance had gone to the kitchen while Pidge was helping Nara. Shiro and Keith followed Coran and Allura back to the bridge in order to see if they needed assistance with the engine. Shiro stepped forward from where he stood behind the two Altaens.

"Is there anything that we can do to help fix the problem?"

"Nope, I believe it is just a loose cup-link or two that is allowing pressure to escape. Thankfully it isn't anything that could have made us explode and will be an easy fix!" Coran stated in his cheery voice while his fingers flew over the holokeys of the computer.

"Well ah... Thats good I guess?" Keith replied in an uneasy tone. Shiro chuckled next to him, patting Keith on the back with his human hand.

"Well if it isn't anything major, I'm gonna go hit the showers." He said while leaving Keith and the others behind with a wave

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Nara had found it difficult to find complete comfort in the heat of the shower. She had to face forward into the stream, for the hot water heated the metal on her back, burning her skin around it. The water that sluiced over her arms and shoulders was thankfully still soothing, and cleaning out her knotted hair felt like heaven. The conditioner (at least Nara hoped it was some sort of alien shampoo) was probably completely gone from how much the girl had to use. Once finished, she dried off and started by putting her new pants on. She paused, noticing the large mirrors above the sinks adjacent to the showers. Turning slowly, her heart dropped as she turned her head to see her back in the mirrors. Nara had never actually seen the device before, for its not like the Galrans provided comforts like mirrors to her. The purple veins snaking from the metal seemed to pulse around her skin that shone angry red from the shower. Not to mention the faded bruising and overall traces of starvation didn't exactly help anything. She sighed, continuing to slide her new clothes on.

" _What did I expect, it's not like it was going to be pretty."_ She couldn't help but notice how the vest fit a little too tightly around the device. Yet, she wasn't frustrated about for long, for the door slid open to reveal a slightly suprised Shiro

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

" _I guess I can thank God I didn't get here any sooner_ " Shiro thought as he realized the shower had recently been occupied. He felt the heat rise on his cheeks and could see the same happening visibly on Nara's now very clean face. Thankfully she was fully clothed before Shiro's intrusion.

"Ah, s-sorry about just walking in, I guess Pidge didn't show you how to turn on the occupancy indicator." He stammered while taking in the girls new outfit. He motioned his prosthetic towards a set of buttons on the wall that Nara would later learn lit small lights outside the lockerroom to indicate occupancy numbers. She laughed awkwardly while putting her hand behind her wet mop of hair.

"Oh, well you learn something new every day, right?" She glanced awkwardly at the ground, unable to meet Shiro's eyes. Shiro gave a likewise awkward chuckle. He glanced at her new outfit, not being able to help noticing how tightly it hugged her. The silence that lasted for seconds felt like hours until Shiro broke the mysterious, butter-thick tension.

"Uhm, so... Are you... Doing okay, with everything?"

His tone turning softer with each word. Nara looked back up while lowering her hand, her hazel eyes finally meeting his gaze.

"Oh, uh...well its certainly been quite a shock, and things will take some getting used to, but I'm doing better than I thought I would be."

She smiled again, a sight that startled Shiro.

" _She's literally been through hell and still manages to crack a smile..."_ His amazement turned to sadness as soon as he focused on her tired eyes. There was so much swimming behind those hazel mirrors, a brand of misery that Shiro himself understood.

"Nara, if you ever need to talk about anything, I'll-"

He was cut off by a sharp alarm sound resonating with a bright red light.


	6. The Bull

_Earlier that day..._

"Lord Zarkon, It seems the Voltron lions have found yet another mining site to antagonize."

Each one of Haggar's words was enunciated hoarsly in a venomous whisper. The witch smirked, showing off her pointed teeth that gleamed white against her sickly violet skin.

"In doing so, the paladins have once again given away their location. Shall I prepare my most recent project for them?"

The voice that answered was toned deep and void of emotion, dripping with malevolence matched by no other being in the universe.

"Haggar, your beasts have proven foolishly hopeless in retrieving the lions of Voltron, therefore my trust in them has thinned, I should travel to their location and tear them apart _myself_."

Haggar rose from where she had been kneeling before the massive throne where the Galran emperor sat, her long cloak swishing at the movement.

"I believe it would be unwise to do so my lord, considering how close we are to finishing our quintessienal extraction experiments. Soon we may preform larger ceremonies, and you will be able to defeat the paladins with no effort at all."

The emperor's eyes, void of pupils, narrowed at the witches words, causing Haggar's smirk to vanish behind a veil of uneasiness. He spoke in an octave ready to slice any steel.

"I may have failed at killing the mewling creatures _once_ Haggar, but know this, the Voltron paladins may play with your pets and live to tell the tale, but they will not survive another encounter with _me_."

"Yes Lord Zarkon, of course." She paused, phrasing her next report carefully.

"If I may sire, there is another... complication that has arisen. The enemy attacked the mining frigate containing Q.B.E 2 and stole it's cargo. If the subject is not put down, it may become an asset to the paladins."

Zarkon leaned forward with little remaining interest in the witches words, resting his chin on his hands.

"I will not allow our enemy any more potential than they already possess, especially from Galran technology. If you are unable to retrieve the subject, it is to be eradicated."

. . . . . . . .

Allura watched fearfully as an unidentifiable object of massive proportions blew a hole straight through the storm clouds of their hiding spot. The castle radar systems had been jammed by the dust storm overhead, leaving no warning for the object to zoom by, just a kilometer away from the Altaen ship. The craft blasted into the moons barren surface with a loud BANG. Coran zoomed in on the crash site in order to identify what the object was.

"Princess, it's hard to tell, but it appears to be a giant galran shipping container!" He exclaimed with a hint of uneasiness in his voice. Allura broke out into a cold sweat in knowing what a shipping container meant. She sounded the castle alarms.

"PALADINS, to your lions NOW"

The container remained lopsided, unmoving in its crater. Yet, just minutes after finishing her order over the intercom, small fighter crafts began to zoom through the opening in the cloud cover.

" _This explains why they didn't follow us to the other side of the planet, it was foolish of me to think we had lost them._ "

"Coran, particle barriers up!" Allura exclaimed.

"Already on it princess!"

He pressed down on a handprint on the holoscreen in front of him. Allura watched through the windows of the bridge with slight relief as the shining barrier rose over the castle. She didn't even notice when Nara ran into the bridge, taking in the alarmed scene in front of her. A small screen portraying the black paladin appeared on Allura's left. Shiro wore a concerned expression that shone clear through the visor of his helmet.

"Princess what's happening, was that blast from the enemy?"

"Yes, it seems the object is another vessel of the Galra, like those on Aeris and the Balmera. We also see fighter crafts have followed its trail."

The other paladins faces popped up one by one next to Shiro's as they each readied their respective lions. The five lions flew away from the castle towards the crater in tight formation.

"Alright guys, here we go!" Shiro yelled as the lions engaged the fighter crafts. The lions blitzed away from eachother as plasma bolts from the Galrans began to whizz by. An icy blast from the blue lion froze four of the ships, causing a large explosion with each hit.

"Geez there are dozens of these guys how did they even find us-GAH!" The blue paladin yelled as a bolt hit his flank, sending the lion spiraling away.

"Hunk, go help Lance!" Shiro ordered over the intercom, preoccupied with several other fighters. He skillfully sliced through each one by one with his lion's fang sword.

"On it!" Hunk answered, forcing his bulky lion to barrel through the fighters in order to reach Lance.

"I'm alright I got this."

Regaining balance, the blue paladin huffed as he blasted two more fighters to pieces. Before Hunk reached the blue paladin, an explosion resounded behind Lance. The red lion flew through the resulting cloud a second later, Keith's slightly cocky voice coming online.

"You sure about that? You would've been hit again if I didn't save your hide."

"Cann-it Keith, I would've been fine without you!"

The green lion suddenly flew in front of the two lions behinds, deflecting blasterfire with its shield before sending plasma bolts through the enemy.

"If we're keeping track of who saves who then both of you idiots owe me one" Pidge smirked, swinging her lion back towards the fray.

"All of you cool it, we're a team and we protect each other no matter what, it's not a contest." Shiro chastised. He was unable to make out his teammates apologetic responses due to his engagement with the final fighter. The lion's blade sliced smoothly through the craft, leaving a large fireball in it's wake. Everyone gave out whoops and hollars of approval at the finishing blow until Allura's face appeared on each of their holoscreens.

"Paladin's, remain wary, this fight isn't over yet!"

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Nara watched in complete awe as the lions swirled in the cloud of debris and blasterfire. A wave of uneasiness washed over her at the sight of the Galra, and the fact that her new friends were in danger made things worse.

" _So this is what they are, what their job is... They have so much responsibility..._ "

She remained frozen quiet near the door of the bridge, fearing she would just get in the way of the team. Yet, Nara's curiosity eventually got the better of her. Her face contorted in fear as about twenty aircrafts broke away from the fight and flew towards the castle.

"Princess I thought you said they wouldn't be able to find us, they're not going to be able to hit the ship right?"

Allura jumped in suprise at Nara's question, completely forgetting they had a newcomer on board. She regained her focus immediately and half turned from her position on the middle dias. Her voice was suprisingly calm for the situation.

"It's alright Nara, we have the particle barrier up, they won't be able to touch us."

She turned her attention back towards the center screen where below Coran was reading the castle defenses.

"Particle blasters charged, on your mark princess."

"Fire!" She exclaimed, throwing her arm forward. Blue lights began to fire at the enemy from the hexagons of the particle barrier. The crafts fired back, but were quickly subdued by the Altaen defenses. Allura let out a sigh of relief.

"There see? We are completely fine, they would need a battleship and many more fighters to break our defenses...!"

Nara watched the princess pause and inhale sharply as something caught the woman's eye to her left. The smaller screen, who's camera was watching the crater site, suddenly showed movement. Something began to glow so brightly it reflected light off the Altaen. Allura's eyes went wide with realization as the paladins celebrated defeating the last fighter.

"Paladins, remain wary, this fight isn't over yet! The drones were just a distraction for whatever was in the container to charge!" She exclaimed. Nara ran forward towards the screen, throwing her earlier hesitation fleeing from her mind. She watched the screen in horror as a hatch opened on the container to reveal a hideous beast.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Shiro cursed under his breath as he hovered his lion over the container. A growl tore through the opening in the metal mass. The yellow lion appeared on Shiro's left.

"Uuhh guys, should we be worried about that? I feel like we shoud be worried about that!" Hunk exclaimed.

"Yes, thats definitly a problem; stay frosty guys this fight isn't over yet!"

Shiro's command was drowned out by another roar. The lions formed a line as a large monster emerged from the crater. It was bigger than a football field and resembled the shape of an armadillo. Large chesnut plates of varying sizes that came to points covered the beasts back. Its legs were round and stubbed. The creatures head was covered in a helmet of dirt-colored scales. The spaces between the scales glowed an angry violet, veins leading to a mass of purple just above the beasts eyes. Each time it reared its head, letting out a roar, rows of razor sharp teeth were revealed.

"It's literally a giant armadillo, are you freaking kidding me?" Pidge exclaimed.

"Hah don't worry guys we got this, it'll be easy to beat this oversized soccerball!" Lance shot bolts of light towards the monster. They glanced off the brown scales on its head without leaving a mark. The assault only seemed to annoy the creature as it reared its glowing purple eyes towards the lions.

"Great job Lance, now its pissed off!"

Ignoring Keith's comment, Shiro chimed in. "We need to come up with a gameplan, stay airborne this thing doesn't have any weapons to fire at us with-" The moment Shiro said that, the scales abve the base of the creatures neck stood on end. With a growl, the creature fired pin-missiles from it's back at the lions.

"-Okay so it does have weapons, everybody scatter!"

Shiro maneuvered his lion into a sharp nosedive, barely avoiding the flying scales. He pulled up and flew straight a the creature, just meters above the ground, letting loose firebolts aimed at its head. From above, a beam of fire came from the maw of the red lion. It left a long curved mark that was barely visible on the beasts armor.

"Ah guys, I don't think this is working!" Hunk yelled as he landed on top of the creatures back, attempting to dig at the armor. The armadillo screeched and tucked his head down below the plates. In an attempt to smush the yellow paladin still latched onto its back, it lunged into a forward roll.

"WOAAH!" Hunk yelled in alarm. He lurched his lion upward, narrowly avoiding being flattened. Pidge and Lance repeatedly fired at the thick shell of the beast, but to no avail.

"This isn't going to ever work, we can't pierce that thing's shell!" Pidge exclaimed, dodging another volley of pin-missiles. The black lion hovered in the air behind the beast. Beads of sweat rolled down Shiro's forehead as adrenaline pumped through his veins. He knew what to do.

"We need more firepower to beat this thing. Alright team, lets FORM VOLTRON!"

After a resounding "YEA" came over the coms, the lions flew into formation. As each lion flew higher, they began to shimmer, leaving a rainbow of color following them. Suddenly in a burst of light, the lions began to transform and connect. The beast gurgled down below, letting loose hundreds of car-sized scales towards the robot. Most of the scales deflected off of Voltron's massive shield, which Pidge managed to pull up just in time.

"Great reaction time Pidge!"

"Thanks Shiro, looks like I got it up just in time." She replied, and with a thrust of the arm shook off what scales had embedded themselves in the shield. They landed in front of the creature that was now sizing up it's new enemy, ready to move at any moment. It began to tuck its head into the bed of scales.

" _It tucks it's head behund the scales whenever it's about to roll..._ " Shiro noted.

"Guys get ready, its going to charge!"

Just as the words left his mouth, the creature lunged forward into a roll at an alarmingly fast speed. Lance pulled the right leg of the robot back, readying it's stance. It barreled right into the shield, but Voltron held its ground. Yet, it wasn't long till the creature unfurled itself, wacking its long tail into the lions from its lopsided position. With a loud "GAAH", the paladins went flying backwards bashing into a rock pile.

"Keith, ready the sword!" Shiro yelled while getting the robot back onto its feet.

"On it!"

With a loud clang, Voltron's hands clapped together, and the red lion pulled a large red and blue sword from the glowing sheath that was Pidges lion. 

.     .     .     .     .     .

Shiro stared down the beast with the intensity of a thousand black holes. His eyes were locked on the armadillo's forehead, where the purple mass of dark qunitessence almost seemed to beat like a heart. On his right, Keith balanced the sword in the red lion's maw, ready to deal damage.

"Shiro, what's the plan?"

Shiro looked at the large pile of rubble behind Voltron. An idea sparked in his head.

" _If that violet crystal is it's weak spot... Then yea, this could work... Hopefully_."

"Guys, it's head has to be its weak spot, that's why it tucks it in when it rolls. We wait for it to charge again, dodge, and let that oversized rat hit the rubble. Then we go for the kill, got it?"

"Aww Hell yea!"

"Yup"

"Let's do this!"

"Ah pretty sure its not a rat, and I really hope this works!"

Lance and Hunk backed Voltron's stance again, ready to dive. The beast grumbled a low earthy growl, and made it's move. With a tuck and a roll, it barreled toward the robot once again.

"Steady...Ready..." Shiro muttured. The creature was spinning at high speed, intent on demolishing the team.

"NOW!" The black paladin yelled. Voltron dove into a barrel roll to the left of the rubble pile. The creature rammed headfirst into the rock. It let out a howl of pain as it unfurled and rolled over, almost flopping onto the ground.

"Keith now!"

"Got it, let's finish this!"

Mid leap into the air, Keith brought the sword down in a slash, the blade landing right onto the beasts crystal brain. The mass cracked slightly in half, but didn't shatter. Purple oozed out and began to spill over the monster's head. It let out another howl of agony.

"Fuck yea a direct hit!!"

"Lance! Langauge!"

"Seriously Shiro?" Pidge muttured.

Nobody noticed the beasts tail fast enough. It swung powerfully, landing a direct hit onto the robot's right side, sending it flying towards another rock pillar that curved outward from the moons surface. Voltron slammed into its base, causing rocks to slide down onto it, pinning the robot's arms and right leg under boulders.

"Guys we can't move what are we gonna do?!" Hunk yelled. He tried moving Voltron's left leg. It kicked upward, free of the rubble, but couldn't reach the other boulders.

"I don't know but we gotta move fast!" Keith exclaimed. The beasts scales stood on end, aimed at Voltron's exposed chest. Yet, right as it was about to fire the final blow, blue plasma bolts glanced off the side of the armadillo's face. It growled in fury, turning towards the castle.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Allura, Nara, and Coran watched in dismay at the Paladin's position.

"Coran, distract the beast with the plasma blasters, quickly!" Allura yelled.

"Alright princess, here we go!"

Coran fired the blasters directly at the beasts head. The action only seemed to annoy the beast even more. It turned on its haunches to face it's new foe. To Allura's left, Nara glanced at the screen that was locked on Voltron.

" _God I hope they're okay..._ "

Through her concern towards the large boulders pinning them down, an idea popped into Nara's mind.

"Allura, can the blasters break apart the larger boulders? Maybe if we break them into smaller pieces they can get out of the rubble."

Allura considered Nara's proposition for a second. She the turned toward Coran.

"Coran, can we hit them without hitting Voltron?"

"They are about five hundred yards away, we should be able to accurately hit the larger boulders."

"Alright then, lock on and fi-!"

She was cut off by a guttural roar from the beast. It broke into a jog towards the castle, then spun forward. Barreling through Galran debris, It hit the shields with a massive amount of force, knocking down all three of the bridge's occupants.

"Uugh, are you guys okay?" Nara asked while rubbing her head.

"Yes, we're all right" The princess answered, using the controls on the dias to steady herself. The beast unfurled and began clawing at the shield.

"Coran, we have to free the Paladins, NOW!" Allura yelled. Coran grunted as he slammed his hand down onto the blaster console before the beast could shake the castle again. Blue bolts shot towards the rocks pinning Voltron down, blasting them to pieces. The creature and begun to roll around the castle, picking up speed before ramming the shields again.

"Gah, princess if this keeps up the shields won't hold out!"

Nara looked in panic towards Allura, who had beads of sweat running down her face.

"Paladins, we need you! Please hurry!" She yelled. In the distance, Voltron had finally dislodged itself from the crumbled pile of rock. The castle shook again with another blow from the armadillo, causing red lights to flash all over the bridge. With a dying fwoosh, the shield came down.

"The particle barrier has run out of power!" Coran yelled. All three of them turned towards where the beast barreled towards the defenseless castle. They prepared for the worst outcome, which never actually came. Just seconds before the monster would hit it's target, Voltron dove with a thrust from its jetpacks, tackling the beast out from its original course.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

The Paladins gave uncomfortable grunts as they came bouncing to a stop after their tackling session.

"That was definitely waaay too close for comfort." Lance remarked.

Voltron steadied on it's feet as Shiro turned the robot towards its foe. The armadillo was on its side, rumbling in pain.

"Guys quickly, while it's down!"

A resounding "RIGHT" sounded over the intercoms. Voltron lunged forward, and with five loud battlecries, plunged the sword deep into the crystal brain. The beast let out a last guttural roar before dark quntessence spilled from its maw. It's head slowly fell with a final flop, never to rise again.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Allura and Coran gave hollars of excitement at the defeat of the enemy. Noticing that Nara was quiet, Allura turned to ask what was wrong. Yet, Nara wasn't there, for she had left the bridge.

"Nara!?" Allura called.

At that moment, the perimeter alarms went off.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Nara sprinted down the hallway towards the entrance of the castle. She flew down the stairs in a vigorous sprint. While Allura and Coran had been focusing on Voltron, Nara had noticed one of the security monitors move.

" _Shit..._ " She swore to herself, watching as about ten surviving Galran pilots made their way towards the castle entrance. Hearing a cry, she had looked up with a start to see the beast barreling towards the castle, only to be knocked out of the way by Voltron. She gasped, almost loosing her footing at the shaking.

" _They're too occupied to handle this, I can help, this is my chance to prove myself to them..._ "

She thought about how much the Paladin's had done for her.

" _They saved me from hell, the least I can do is face my demons for them._ "

With a confident mask, she ran towards the main door. The Galrans had soon reached the entrance of the castle. Nara halted mid sprint, sizing up her enemies. Some were cracked and had malfunctioning limbs, but most were sadly intact. With a startled cry, she dove behind one of the pillars as the soldiers fired. She gasped, chastising herself for being as stupid as to just stand in front of the enemy. Muddled memories began to float back to her, visions of harsh times in the labs. She started feeling nervous at the thought of her times with the Galra, but she violently pushed them away.

" _I've faced a lot worse than this... I can do this._ "

She closed her eyes, furrowing her brows together.

" _Cmon you stupid thing, work for me , please!_ "

She felt her skin slowly start to heat up. Her nerves tingled, feeling dart-like bullets travel from her spine throughout her body with each heartbeat. Yet, to Nara's dismay, her back did nothing.

" _Shit, you stupid piece of Galra junk_!"

She swore again as a plasmabolt came a little too close for comfort. Peering over the enclove, she saw the Galrans walking towards her position. Their gunfire had stopped.

" _I'll just have to wait for them to get closer and use melee attacks._ "

She shifted, putting her weight on the balls of her feet. The metal footsteps sounded just feet away.

" _Just a little closer...closer...NOW!_ "

She pounced towards the first bot, wrapping her legs around it's head and twisting. The head popped off and the crumpled body caused them both to fall. She barrel rolled forward, kicking the bot in front of her over. Before they started shooting again, she had already twisted another bot to the ground snapping its right arm. She sprung up and a bolt hit the back of her left shoulder, causing her to fly forward to the ground. Her shoulder stung like hell, but her spine began to burn like fire.

" _Damn you all to HELL!"_

She growled in rage, her anger rising with each second. Hearing a grinding sound behind her, metal plates suspended in a pool of quintessence slid from the slots in her back. She flicked her wrist and the quintessence took a form resembling that of wings. Her vision was rimmed violet as she spun back towards the enemy. The seven remaining Galrans had backstepped in alarm, but began to fire again. Nara swung her left arm outward and down towards her hip, pooling the plates and quintessence together in a circle in front of her. The blasterfire simply sparked before being absorbed into the shield. Without missing a beat, Nara moved her left arm forward in a quick pushing motion. Three of the plates dislodged themselves from the shield, and shot forward in their own thick strings of energy. They flew straight through three of the enemies. The holes in their heads sparked and cracked before they fell. Nara smiled a wicked grin, her bloodlust rising. She forced the whole shield into a forward movement this time, ramming down the remaining bots off their feet in one motion. Swinging both her arms up and quickly back down, the metal plates rose up and flew downward, puncturing the robots with precision strikes. With a smirk, she pulled the quintessence back towards where she stood. Her sight was growing to a darker shade of violet by the minute. Staring at the remains at her feet, she was unaware of the bot laying a couple feet to the left of her that remained functioning. It pointed its gun upward, but was stopped by a blast. Nara jumped and turned to the blasts origin. Lance was standing in front of where the blue lion rested in front of the castle. His gun was in his hands, pointed downward due to the lack of enemies. His eyes were locked on Nara's, his mouth agape.

"Na-ra?..." He seemed to breathe out in disbelief.

Nara growled. Something tugged at the back of her mind, almost screaming a feeling of indecision. She took two full strides towards Lance before her mind returned to her.

" _Wha... Oh god, that was too close, what was I about to do?..._ "

The plates slid slowly back into her, and her vision was cleared of the angry violet. She clutched her head, for it pounded at her skull, forcing her to crouch down. Lance seemed to shake himself out of his shocked stupor as the remaining lions landed behind his own.

" _Oh god,I-I can't control it... I need to be more careful, I need to learn control it..._ "

A comforting hand rested on her shoulder. Allura gazed down at her with a worried expression, Coran doing the same behind her.

"Nara, are you alright?" she asked calmly.

"Yes, I-Im alright." She managed to stammer out, slowly standing up.

"Holy crap, that was the coolest thing I've ever seen!" Lance yelled, coming to a halt from his jog towards Coran and the two girls.

"I mean man, guys she was all like KAPOW, and KAPANG with that wierd glowy stuff, it was sick!"

He moved his arms in chopping motions before finishing his exclamation with both arms in the air. The rest of the team ran towards them. Nara saw Shiro examine the robot debris with a suprised glance. Holding his helmet in his arm, then he looked towards her.

"Did you do this?" He questioned. Nara gulped, avoiding his eyes.

" _Should I lie? No that's stupid Allura and Lance know I did this. But... If I tell the truth, will he think differently of me? Will they all do the same?_ "

"Y-yes, I did."

She said each word in a softer tone than the last. Nara looked at Keith, who was looking at the ground like he had a bad taste in his mouth. Shiro furrowed his brow, seeming to be in deep thought. He looked like he was about to say something, but Pidge beat him to it.

"WOW, did you do this with your enhancements? That's Awesome!" She exclaimed.

She stood on her tippy toes, uncomfortably close to Nara's face.

"Can I pleeeaase analyze the device on your back? I want to learn more about Galran tech and I think it would really help our cause!"

The girl gave Nara a big smile, curling her fingers together like she was praying to her. Nara was slightly taken aback.

"Aha, umm... You don't think its... Strange?"

" _You don't think I'm a monster? A freak?..._ " She wondered.

"We don't think you're strange, at least I don't. Well, the stuff on your back is, but you aren't. After all its not exactly something you can help, plus we've seen some pretty freaky stuff ourselves, it's nothing new." Hunk ranted.

"Hunk's right Nara, that thing doesn't make you any less than what you are, we have no right to judge you for it and wouldn't do so in the first place." Shiro smiled at her, making Nara blush slightly.

" _Well he seems a lot perkier than, like, a minute ago. What was he just thinking about?_ "

Realizing she hadn't answered an expectant Pidge yet, she spoke up.

"Okay, Okay, you can take a look at it, but just, don't do anything _weird_ please."

She annunciated the _weird_  because, honestly, Pidges excitedly maniacal smile scared her a little.

"Paladins, before we do anything, we should leave this place, I can only hope reinforcements are not already on their way to our position on this moon." Allura reasoned with slight impatience.

"Allura's right, lets pack up and get out of here." Shiro commanded, breaking into a jog towards the black lion. The rest of the paladins ran back to their banged up ships while Nara, Coran, and Allura returned to the inside of the castle.

" _I dont scare them, Ahah... thank goodness..._ "

She let out a sigh of relief as the castle doors closed behind her. Minutes later, the mostly unharmed Castle of Lions took off from the moon, entering the never ending reaches of space.


	7. Dreams Can't Hide

After the castle took off, everyone gathered in the bridge. The paladins and Nara were lined up facing Allura, who stood at the center dias with Coran to her right.

"Great work today paladins, you all did an amazing job." She said with a smile.

Coran stepped forward next to her.

"Allura and I will remain here to check over any possible damages to the castle, the rest of you are free to do as you wish."

The exhausted group let out a sigh of relief.

"I think we should all get some sleep, it's been an extremely long day." Said Shiro.

Lance, Hunk, Nara and Keith nodded in agreement, Lance giving an obnoxiously loud yawn.

"I think I'm gonna go take a look at green, she got pretty banged up today." Pidge said while walking towards the door.

"Alright but please get some rest later."

"Will do Shiro. By the way, Nara, can I take a look at that tech soon?"

Nara looked up in surprise but shook her head.

"Maybe later Pidge, I could use some shut eye myself." she replied, scratching the back of her skull.

Pidge shrugged and walked out the door, the others following in her wake.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Lance, Hunk and Keith headed to the showers while Shiro and Nara walked to their rooms. His room was directly across from Nara's at the end of the hall, making for an uncomfortably long silent trek. They stopped in front of their doors, Shiro finally breaking the silence.

"Hey Nara,you know if you need anything don't be afraid to ask."

Nara looked at him with an awkward half smile.

"Thanks Shiro, will do."

He nodded goodnight and disappeared behind the sliding door. She stepped into her own room, the door wooshing behind her. Her fingertips tapped against the cold metal making little clinks with her fingernails. She leaned back against it, slowly resting her head.

" _All of this... I can't believe this is real... I'm finally safe._ "

She sighed and approached the bed, moved the covers, and stretched herself over the mattress. Nara reached back towards the light switch and dimmed the lights down to a cool blue. Replacing the covers, she rested her head on the soft pillow. It felt like a cloud that could hold up heaven. The girl was exhausted, she knew that for sure, for her body ached all over. She felt her eyes begin to droop after a time. As sleep began to wash over her, the girl's mind began to wander back into it's darkest reccesses. She began to think about her crewmates and their fates. A wave of guilt washed over her, building up so tight it felt like it was choking her alive.

" _Niel...You and Andrew both should be here, safe in warm beds, not me. Do I even have a right to feel safe after everything? To feel happy again and laugh with these people after what I've done? ..._ "

Tears rolled down her face as she drifted off into deep sleep.

" _I'm so sorry Niel, please, I'm so sorry..._ "

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Keith was the last to finish showering. Turning off the hot liquid, he wrapped a towel around his waist and exited the stall. Hunk and Lance were just finishing getting dressed.

"I'm just saying, she doesn't seem like that bad of a person, you know? She's been really shy in my opinion." Hunk said while tightening his headband. Lance pulled his jacket over his shoulders next to the large boy.

"Well, all I know is she's a pretty good lookin addition to the team if you ask me"

Keith gave Lance a glare.

"Lance, she's like 24, thats almost Shiro's age."

Lance turned to Keith, ready to interject, but faltered. "What's it to you Ke-" He paused, taking in Keiths bare body. It was well toned and covered in a light sheen from the water. To Keith and Hunk's confusion, Lances cheeks turned a slight pink.

"Aha umm, well, its none of your business anyways." The struggling boy finished, crossing his arms. Keith looked at Hunk in confusion, who just gave a shrug in reply.

"Annnyyywwaaayyyss, I still think theres something she's not telling us. I don't know what it is, but she just looks like shes hiding something."

Hunk sighed.

"Cmon Keith we've gone over this, why would she lie to us it's pretty obvious she hates the Galra, right Lance?"

Lance looked up from where he had been analyzing the floor tiles, his face no longer red.

"Right, you guys should have seen her today, she tore those Galrans apart with so much... Anger." He replied, enunciating the last part.

"I mean it was like she was an animal, it was kinda scary to be honest."

Keith huffed with annoyance, and began to put his clothes back on under the towel.

"I'm not calling her evil all I'm saying is it just seems like somethings constantly in the back of her mind."

"Well she was held prisoner for almost a year, no wonder she's got stuff on her mind." Hunk inerjected. Keith opened his mouth to speak again but was cut off by a shriek suddenly echoing through the air.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Shiro closed the door behind him with a frown.

" _I should have asked if there was anything she needed to talk about._ "

He thought back to the Galran bots torn apart on the floor. Images of the Galran prison flashed back to him. He grunted, holding his head. Visions of the gladiator ring were appearing. Masses laying in pieces littered the floor of the arena. Shiro couldn't tell if they were bots or real guards and didn't think he would want to. All he knew was he, Shiro, the black paladin, had torn them apart. He clenched his eyes shut, trying to steady his breath.

" _She tore those bots apart just like champion would have, like I would have. They made her a weapon like me..._ "

Shiro took a long look at his prosthetic and sighed. He moved towards his bed, done with the day. Memories of himself at the garrison appeared in his mind. With a smirk, he remembered a tall brown-haired girl who would pass him before classes each day. He had noticed she had always worn a look of determination, like nothing would stand in her way.

" _So much has changed since those days, so much has gone wrong..._ "

He pushed his uneasiness out of his head, knowing if he dwelled on the memories that sleep would never come. Sleep never came easy for him anymore, not since being abducted. Yet, through his body's exhaustion, he began to drift. His breathing shallowed, until he was ripped awake by a scream of terror.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

" _Wha...where are we?"_

_"I don't know, but I think theyre coming"_

_"Who?..."_

_Three guards walked in, trailed by some being in a cloak. Nara's eyes widened in terror. The vision became muddled, but there was yelling and...pain, a burning fire of torturous agony._

_"NIEL!"_ _Nara yelled._

_The only reply was darkness. When her vision cleared, she was looking at a wall. The girl tried to move her arms, only to realize she was laying on her stomach, strapped to cold metal. There were voices filling the room she didn't recognize._

_"Begin bio-quintessional enahncement test no. 3"_

_"Wha?"_

_Her body was numb, but not dulled enough to block out the pain that would tear at her. She heard a buzz and her screams broke the vision to pieces._

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Nara shrieked for a full two seconds before realizing she was back in the castle. The room was spinning too fast. She curled her knees to her chest, her body covered in a cold sweat. Through her heavy breathing, she barely noticed the door fly open.

"Nara, NARA!"

A hand roughly shook her out of her stupor. She looked up to see it was Shiro. His face was contorted in concern.

"Nara what is it, are you okay?" She just stared with wide eyes and started to cry, almost lunging into Shiro's arms.

"Shiro... Oh Shiro I'm sorry god I'm so sorry." she mumbled in a broken sob.

His suprise at the hug faded and he returned the embrace, sitting both of them back down onto the bed. The other three paladins ran to the room.

"What the HELL was that?" Keith almost yelled. Hunk and Lance remained silent behind him taking in the scene before them. Shiro looked back at the three of them.

"Everything's fine, Nara just had a nightmare, you guys can go back to your rooms."

Keith wanted to question further but Shiro's expression was firm. Keith, Lance, and Hunk turned towards their rooms, Hunk giving one more worried glance before the door whizzed shut. Shiro turned his head back towards the shaking girl. She sobbed into his shoulders.

"I'm sorry, i'm so sorry, i'm sorry..." She wimpered continuously.

"Hey shhhh, it's okay you're safe here, you're okay."

" _Why is she apologizing..."_ Shiro wondered.

He couldn't help but feel like he just lied, knowing for an obvious fact the girl was not fine. He rubbed his hand in a circular motion above the device in an attempt to calm her down. Her trembling evened out and her breathing slowed, becoming less shaky. She took one last deep breath before speaking.

"I'm sorry, for waking you up I mean, I should have known this would be hard..." She whispered.

" _That can't be what she was apologizing for..._ " He thought but he didn't push the matter.

She lifted her head from his shoulder.

"Don't apologize, it's okay. It's not something you can help, trust me I know." He said firmly.

Slowly, he lifted the back of his hand to her face, wiping away the tears on her right cheek. Nara felt her face flush, and looked back up towards him. They both froze. Nara scooted back a little, and Shiro lowered his arms into his lap.

"Ah, uhm I'm..." Nara was about to apologize again but stopped herself, remembering Shiro's words.

"I think I'll be okay, for the rest of the night... I mean..." She stammered.

" _She's still not telling the truth_ "

"Are you sure? I could stay here until you fall asleep if you want." He said, staring straight into her eyes.

" _I can't force her to talk, she probably wouldn't tell me the truth anyways..._ "

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Nara wanted him to stay so badly. He was such a comforting presence. Yet, she knew she wasn't going to find slumber tonight.

" _He deserves_ the _rest, I'm not going to keep him up_."

"It's alright, I'll be fine." She smiled slightly.

He frowned looking downwards like he was deep in thought.

" _He doesn't believe me_ "

"Okay, I'll be across the hall, if you need anything, that is."

He stood up scratching the back of his head, and headed for the door.

" _Stop please stay, please..._ "

"Goodnight Nara"

"Goodnight Shiro"

The door whooshed shut behind him.

. . . . . .

Nara was correct in the fact that sleep evaded her the whole night. She certainly had a detailed picture of her room now from examining every crack and crevice all night long.

" _It's probably morning by now, do they even still follow Earth night and daytime anymore? I mean we ARE in space_ ."

She gave a long sigh, deciding it was time to get up. The bed creaked with her movement. Upon opening the door, she peered out into a mostly empty hallway. It was quiet, until she heard another whizz and footsteps clack on the metal floor. She stepped half into the hallway and watched curiously as Keith exit his room.

" _Should I follow him? I guess I don't really know where anything is here... Maybe I should ask_?"

Her thoughts became moot when Keith turned around and noticed the girls presence.

"Oh, hey Nara." He said with a yawn.

"Hey, good morning Keith, that is, if it is morning." she replied.

"Allura set the clocks in our rooms to follow Earth time so yes, it's morning."

His voice was completely monotone which made Nara a little annoyed, like she should have known such an obvious fact.

" _Is he always like this or does he still just not trust me?..._ "

Nara really didn't know how to feel about the boy. He seemed nice enough but then again also gave off an aura of annoyance no matter what he was doing.

"Do you need help finding the kitchen? I'm going there now, you can follow me."

"Huh? Oh- oh yea sure, thanks."

Keith led them down a hallway to the right of the bedrooms. Nara glanced at Keith. She was slightly taller than him, which made her inwardly chuckle a little. The guy looked like he had something to say, but didn't know how to say it. He opened his mouth, but suddenly, a shot of green glop flew out of an opening in the hallway.

"PIDGE WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?" Lance shrieked from inside the kitchen.

Nara and Keith peered around the corner. Inside, Lance, Hunk, and Pidge were sitting around a middle island table. Pidge was holding onto a knosel hooked up to a hose that ran up to a device in the wall. Hunk was laying on the ground, seemingly dying from laughter, while Lance, well, Lance looked royally pissed. It was understandable because his face was covered in green spacegoo. Nara and Keith almost fell on top of eachother, following Hunks example of outright laughter. Lance whipped towards them.

"It's NOT funny!" Lance seethed.

Pidge was chuckling from her stool at the table, still holding the knosel menacingly.

"Aaah man Lance trust me it's pretty funny, if you didn't want a free facial you shouldn't have called me a pipsqueak." She said still laughing.

Lance snatched the knosel.

"Oooh I'll show you pipsqueak!"

He aimed at Pidge.

"HIT THE DECK!" Both her and Hunk yelled.

Keith and Nara, who were back on their feet, glanced at eachother. In silent agreement, they both dove behind the wall to avoid the onslaught of goo. Nara peered back around the corner to see Hunk and Pidge blocking Lances goo blasts with plates.

"WHAT DID I DO?" Hunk yelled, taking a goo shot to the chest.

"You laughed!" Lance exclaimed.

Nara ducked her head back behind the wall, narrowly avoiding being clipped by the weaponized goo. Keith growled, got up, and stomped into the doorway.

"Lance, KNOCK IT-" He was cut off by green glop slamming straight into his face.

Lance doubled over laughing while Hunk and Pidge froze behind the island. Nara turned to the sound of footsteps approaching, only to see Shiro walking towards them.

"Nara, Keith, good-" He stopped himself when a seething Keith covered in goo turned to him. With a raised eyebrow, Shiro brushed past the two and walked into the kitchen.

"What is going _on_ here?" He demanded. His tone made even Nara flinch.

Hunk, Pidge, and Lance all tried to spew out different explanations at once.

"It was Lances fault-what the hell Pidge you started it- I was just a midning my own business-Hunk you helped her-I didn't do anything!"

Shiro held the bridge of his nose in one hand and gave a huge sigh.

"GUYS." He said sharply, interrupting the argument. They all fell silent. "I don't care who did it, but you all are going to stay and help clean this up." He commanded.

"Yes Shiro" They all replied sheepishly.

"Keith, you go clean up your face."

Keith gave Lance a quick glare before stomping off. Shiro turned towards Nara, but she spoke before he said anything.

"I'll stay and help clean."

"Are you sure? I have a feeling you didn't have anything to do with this." His tone softer than before.

She gave a chuckle.

"It's okay, I don't mind, it'll give me a chance to get to know them better."

With another sigh, he nodded and walked out of the room, most likely towards the bridge. Nara turned towards the three Paladins who were still bickering with eachother.

"Gee thanks Lance."

"Hey you started it." He muttured.

"Only because you called me short! And at least I only got it on your face and not the whole kitchen!" Pidge exclaimed.

"Hey, if we keep arguing we'll never get this cleaned up!" Nara interjected.

They all stopped and stared at her. She crossed her arms, holding their gazes confidently. Hunk walked back from rummaging through the cabinets, and with a shrug at Nara's comment, started handing out towels.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Lance gave a long groan. They had all decided he could wipe up the floor while the rest of them cleaned the other surfaces.

"Ugh this sucks." He said while scooping up goo.

"Its your fault for turning a joke into a war." Nara replied while trying to scratch the food out of a corner between the cabinets.

Her statement earned her another inaudible grumble from the boy. Out of the corner of her eye, Pidge scooted closer to her, sitting upright on the counter that Nara was currently kneeling on.

"So Nara, I've been wanting to ask but didn't get a chance yesterday, what's it like using that thing?" She motioned to Nara's back. Nara was taken slightly aback at the question. She knew Pidge was curious about the device but the question sure came out of nowhere.

"I was kind of wondering the same thing, you were a complete badass fighting those Galrans yesterday." Lance piped in, making punching motions from his kneeling position on the floor.

She took a second to think about it, noticing Hunk move towards them out of the corner of her eye. She turned over and sat down on the counter with Pidge.

" _What's it like? It's... Terrifying..._ "

"Well, it's a wierd experience. For one thing, I don't exactly know how to activate it per sae-" She paused, thinking back to the fragmented memories of being a test subject. "-To be completely honest it's a little scary. I don't have clear memories of using it while I was a prisoner. All I know is that my vision blurs around the corners and my skin heats up."

" _And I get angry, so angry..._ "

Pidge held her hand up to her chin with an inquisitive look.

"Hmm, interesting... So it's like you don't know how to use it until it's activated?"

Nara thought about it for a second, and nodded in agreement.

" _I should avoid using the word control, I don't want to scare them, they finally seem comfortable around me._ "

"Well, if it activated while you were attacked by the robots yesterday, maybe it only reacts when you're in trouble." Hunk interjected.

"Aha I've got it!" Pidge suddenly exclaimed, making both her and Hunk jump.

"Maybe we could recreate yesterday's events in the training room. Think about it, we could put her in with the training bot and crank it up to a high enough level where she would be under stress. Therefore, if my hypothesis is correct, the device should activate!" She concluded pointing to the air. Lance jumped up onto his feet.

"Aww this is gonna be sweet, you're gonna kick some can!"

Pidge, Hunk, and Lance looked at her expectantly.

" _Should I be egging this on? I AM the adult here._ " She gave an exasperated sigh.

" _It would help to have a better understanding of how this thing functions... If I could learn how to use it I could help their cause._ "

"Alright lets do this." She said with a determined smirk.

. . . . . . . . . . .

On the bridge, Shiro, Coran, and Allura were strategizing the teams next plan of attack.

"Princess, what do you think our next move should be?" Shiro asked.

She was standing next to Coran with the astral map pulled up.

"Hmmm... Considering we have no other Intel at the moment, I believe our best shot is to follow that mining frigate to it's destination. Coran, can you calculate it's trajectory?"

She turned to Coran, who was stroking his moustache thoughtfully.

"Yes I believe I can. Since we still have a lock on it I can see what direction its taken in the past day and calculate its flight path. Lets see where this ships going." He replied, his hands beginning to fly over the holokeys.

The trajectory of the ship pointed to a small planet, just on the edge of the next sector over. Allura walked back to the center dias to examine if there were any records on the planet.

"Hmmm..."

"What is it princess?" Shiro asked with hands on his hips.

"Well it seems we have no record of the planet except it's name."

"Well, what is it?"

"It's called Eviscia, but I've never heard of the name before..."

"The castles long range scanners are showing that the planet is giving off massive amounts of energy, indicating life upon it. There may be a whole mining colony there." Coran cut in.

"The question is, should we follow the frigate there or go straight to the planet to investigate?" Allura wondered out loud.

Shiro stepped closer to the map to get a better look at the planet that was now enlargened by Coran. The scan didn't show a very detailed picture, only the fact that three moons encircled the planet.

"I think we should follow it, there must be a reason they were transporting a prisoner like Nara to this place, plus we shouldn't just warp to the planet without any intel on it." He said while folding his arms.

"I agree, it would not be wise to go in without any knowledge. Shiro, go round up the paladins, we should debrief them on our plan."

Shiro nodded at the princess in reply and left the room.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Keith walked towards the training room in his black t-shirt and pants. He planned on getting some reps in with the gladiator while the paladins had nothing to do. Yet, his plan was interrupted when he walked into the control room that overlooked the training floor. In front of him were Pidge, Lance, and Hunk standing in front of the main panel, all three observing something down below.

"What are you guys doing in here?"

He heard a clang.

"And what was that?" He questioned.

The three turned suddenly, like Keith had spooked them.

" _Or like they were hiding something..._ " He thought.

"Ooh hey Keith, were just holding a test that's all." Pidge said adjusting her glasses.

Keith pushed past Lance to see what was happening on the floor below them. His eyes widened when he saw Nara barely dodge a sword swipe from the gladiator.

"You pitted her against the gladiator?!" He exclaimed.

"Chill out mullet she's fine, she's probably an even better fighter than you are." Lance joked with a smirk.

"What are you thinking? What if she gets hurt?" He retorted.

"Keith, shes not in any immediate danger, besides wasn't it you who wanted to learn more about her?" Pidge questioned, knowing Keith couldn't argue with her logic. Keith froze mid word with one hand extended towards the air before giving a long exhale.

"I guess it would be smart to see what she can do." He admitted folding his arms.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

" _Why did I ever agree to this?_ " Nara questioned to herself as the gladiator swiped at her.

She sidestepped and the blade brushed past her. The robot turned its arm back quickly and Nara cartwheeled backwards before she could get sliced in the gut. She regained her footing and held her hands up, ready to move. The gladiator paused, taking in Nara's new position for just a second, and then charged. She watched the robot's movements intently, waiting for her time to strike.

" _Wait for it, wait for jt_ "

The gladiator lifted the sword above it's right shoulder, ready to slice downward at a sharp angle.

"NOW"

With a smirk, Nara sprung upward and twisted above the blade. Using the jumps momentum, she swung her foot around and nailed the guardian in the head. The contact caused it's head to to snap halfway off. Nara landed awkwardly on her right foot and quickly spun around to see the damage she'd done. With a spurt of sparks, the robot fell and disappeared in a woosh of glittery fragments.

" **Training sequence Level 2, completed.** " A computer generated voice stated over the loudspeaker.

Nara turned towards the yells that were eminating from the overlook.

"Awwwwh dang told you guys shes a badass!"

"Lance, we kind of already knew that." Pidge said pointedly.

"Oh yea pipsqueak?"

"I told you to stop calling me that!"

"Yea Lance, Pidge might do something to you in your sleep if you're not careful." Keith cut in with a smirk.

A mischevious gleam washed over Pidges glasses, making Lance shuffle uneasily.

"HEY" Nara called from the floor, interrupting the petty squabble.

"Oh yea, Nara how did that level feel? Did anything change?" Pidge questioned, almost forgetting their whole reason for being there. Nara stood still, pondering for a second.

" _No, nothings changed, I did beat that one pretty easily though_."

"I think that level was still too easy for me to actually feel like I'm in trouble." She called back in reply.

Pidge turned to Hunk "Alright, Hunk increase the level."

"Guys I don't know, is this really a good idea i'm kind of having second thoughts about putting her in danger."

"Don't worry buddy, like we said, it's just a training exercise, the worst she could get is a couple cuts and bruises." Lance pointed out.

"He suprisingly does have a point, she should be okay." Pidge added without looking up.

With a sigh, Hunk raised the level of the robot.

"I **nitiating training sequence Level 3.** " The computer voice rang out.

Nara readied her stance again as the robot flashed up from the ground. The gladiator readied it's blade, but didn't move.

" _Its waiting for me to strike, this one's smarter than the last two._ "

She backstepped, readying herself to go into a sprint.

" _I can dive under it and incapacitate it before it turns around_."

With her plan in mind, she broke into a sprint towards the gladiator. She slowed down for a milisecond to dive downward into a roll under the robot. Yet, her plan, we could say, absolutely failed. The smarter robot kicked its left leg out with amazing speed and caught Nara right in the gut, sending her flying. She bounced twice before sliding to a stop.

" _Damn, of course it would have seen that coming, how could I be so stupid?_ " She internally chastised herself as she got back on her feet.

Her gut felt like it had compressed in on itself and her side would surely bruise. Taking advantage of the girl's incapacitated state, the gladiator sprinted towards her. It swung at her horizontally and she ducked, the blade passing by a hairs breath. Instead of swinging the sword back like she expected, it kicked straight at her. The kick was true and sent her rolling back onto the floor.

" _Cmon Nara you idiot, this should be easy!_ "

She gritted her teeth in anger.

" _You're being weak you can do this_ "

Her skin began to tingle.

"Nara, do you want us to stop the simulation?!" Pidge exclaimed with worry.

"No! I can do this!" Nara yelled in reply

" _How are you going to protect anyone if you can't even protect yourself!_ " She almost yelled at herself.

"Gaaahhh!!" She let out a cry of frustration. Back on her feet, her nerves felt like thousands of hot needles spinning through her, stabbing at the walls of her veins. The skin surrounding the device went from an itch to a slow burn. She saw her vision begin to rim violet and heard a scraping sound behind her. Nara locked eyes with the gladiator and let out a growl.

" _I will fight it, I will rip it apart, I will **destroy** this thing_ "

Ignoring the talking above her, she gave into the anger and let it take hold. The robot, sizing up it's new opponent, sprinted at her again. This time though, she was ready.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Shiro searched for the other four paladins to no avail. He checked the kitchen which was, to his suprise and content, completely clean.

" _Where is everyone?_ "

He began walking towards the training room until he heard a yell.

"Nara, do you want us to stop the simulation?!"

" _That's Pidge, but why is she yelling?_ " He wondered.

Shiro broke out into a sprint towards the control overhang. It didn't take long for him to put two and two together.

" _Nara? Simulation?... Oh no..._ "

He ran through the door to find the four other paladins watching whatever was going on below with great focus. Keith turned to the sound of Shiro running into the room and went a little pale.

"Guys, whats going on, is Nara down there?" He demanded.

"Yes Shiro, but don't worry, everything's under control!" Pidge exclaimed.

Shiro walked forward and looked down at the floor. There was the gladiator, and on the ground in front of it, Nara was attempting to get up.

"This is too dangerous, I'm shutting down the simulation."

He began to walk towards the main panel but Pidge cut him off.

"Wait wait Shiro, not yet, look it"s working!" She exclaimed pointing out the window.

"What's working?" He questioned, redirected his attention towards Nara, who was now back on her feet.

He froze in awe at her transformation, the paladins also looking at the girl in shock. Bright purple veins snaked all over her arms and legs, shining easily through the fabric of her outfit. The girl's eyes were an angry violet, unmoving from where the gladiator stood. The quintessence flowed in waves from her back, the metal plates suspended in the two seperate masses. Its shape came to form a long wingspan behind her.

"Oh my god..."

He watched in horror and amazement as she made her first move.


	8. Reasons to Be Afraid

" _I will beat this thing, yes, I know I can..._ "

Nara lifted her arm up above her head slowly, pointing to the air. The gladiator stood still, watching her every move. After her arm stopped, the robot sprinted forward, ready to strike. She could feel the qunitessence humming behind her, waiting for her command.

" _I will destroy it, I will obliterate it, I will..._ " Nara's thoughts faltered. Images of the team flashed into her head like a rolling clip. She thought back to Allura's comforting hand on her shoulder, Lances dorky flirting attempts... And Shiro's kind words, constantly telling her she was safe. The violet rimming her vision began to fade.

" _Allura, Coran, Keith, Lance, Pidge, Hunk... Shiro..._ " The lack of focus for just a milisecond almost cost her dearly. The robot sliced at her and broke Nara out of her trans. She quickly swiped her arm down just in time to drag the quintessence into a shield in front of her. The gladiator's blade stopped on one of the metal plates. The robot and Nara were now in a deadlock, pushing against eachother.

" _I am in control, I will keep them safe, I will not destroy... But I WILL protect._ " She flailed both her arms outward, and the metal plates flew in all different directions as well. The burst caused the robot to stumble back. She pushed both arms forward for the final blow. The shining diamonds flew in their strands of quintessence from all directions. They embedded themselves in the gladiator, leaving holes all over it's body and tearing it to pieces. It flashed away in a burst of sparkling light

_"Training Sequence Level 3, Completed."_

Nara breathed a sigh of relief, and rested her arms against her sides. The action pulled the quintessence back to its original position behind her. It came to rest in the form of a wingspan once again.

" _I did it, I took control.. I... I_ " Her satisfaction did not last long, for her vision began to blur again.

" _I... I killed it..._ "

She kneeled down, ignoring the yells she could hear from the control room.

" _NO, I'm in control, It's my mind!_ "

The violet began to fade again. Nara was so focused on herself that she didn't even hear the footsteps running towards her. She did manage to look up when a large hand rested on her shoulder. Her eyes met with Shiro's and something changed. He became the focal point of her vision. Looking into his eyes cleared everything from her head in an instant, all of the anger and hate, even the angry violet hue on the rims of her eyesight.

"Nara, hey look at me, are you okay?" His voice was filled with worry.

" _So caring..._ "

"Yes... I'm fine, it's okay."

Shiro helped her onto her feet. The other paladins had followed Shiro down to the main floor and were standing behind him.

"Are you sure? Because you're still all glowy and purple." Lance said pointing behind her.

Nara half turned to see one of her quintessional "wings" floating above.

" _He's right, but why hasn't it shut down yet?..._ "

Nara let her arms go limp to her sides. To her and everyone elses shock, the blades slipped back into the device, and the quintessence followed their path. She felt her skin cool, her nerves no longer prickling on end.

"Wooaaaahhh..." Both Pidge and Hunk breathed out simultaneously.

Shiro turned to face the group.

"Ok I think that's enough experimentation for one day." 

Nara noticed he was still holding onto her left hand to give her support. She awkwardly let go, earning her a glance from the man. He quickly turned his attention back to the other paladins, like nothing had happened.

"Lets head up to the bridge, Allura has come up with our next plan of attack."

With a mix of excited and disappointed grunts, they all shuffled towards the door. Nara prepared to walk with them, but a hand caught her shoulder.

"Are you sure you're okay, you seemed... Uneasy after we walked down." Shiro said with a concerned expression.

" _Damn this guy can read anyone like a book_ "

"I'm okay, don't worry." She gave him a smile.

He furrowed his brow as she began to walk away again.

"I know you're hiding something."

Nara froze in her tracks at the statement. She heard Shiro walk towards her again.

"You're afraid of something, I know you are. I know because I've seen that look in your eyes before, on someone else."

She turned slowly. His face was more worry now than concern.

"Nara, you know me, you've known me for so long, you can trust me."

" _What should I tell him? How terrified I am? What I've been put through? How I can barely control this... Thing?_ "

"I'm sorry Shiro, you're right, I am hiding something." He raised an eyebrow while she continued. "It's just... Hard to talk about okay? If you really do understand how I feel then you'd know what I mean."

She turned on her heels before Shiro could answer and headed towards the door. He didn't bother to try to stop her.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Allura turned to the sound if the approaching paladins. They all filed in one by one, with two exceptions.

"Where are Shiro and Nara?"

"They were right behind us, I'm sure they're on their way." Hunk replied.

"Yea, they probably wanted a little alooooonnnneee time."

Keith punched Lances shoulder, breaking the blue Paladin's sly grin.

At that moment, Nara walked in the door, followed by Shiro shortly after. Nara looked like someone had punched her in the gut.

" _Something's troubling her..._ " Allura thought, narrowing her eyes. She didn't question it further, and instead cleared her throat, ready to announce their plan.

"Alright Paladin's, here is our next move. We have tracked the mining frigates path and it leads to a planet on the edge of the next quadrant."

She extended the astral map so they could all see.

"We believe there could possibly be an entire mining colony located there. The plan as of right now is to investigate what is happening there and if the planet's populice is enslaved."

"Okaaayyy, how come we don't just go straight there guns ablazin? I mean we know where the place is so why not?" Lance pointed out. Keith folded his arms next to him.

"As rare as it may be, Lance is right, we have the element of suprise why not take advantage of it?"

Lance gave Keith an annoyed glare that the red paladin completely ignored.

"We have decided that it would be unwise to warp to the planet. We do not know yet how heavily influenced the planet is by the Galra, or how important it is. Therefore we will follow the ship to its destination." Coran replied pointedly.

"And how long will it take to follow?" The question came from Pidge this time.

Allura was the one to answer.

"It will take about six Earth days to arrive, until then I suggest you all continue your training."

"Is that everything then princess?" Shiro asked. Allura nodded.

"You are all dismissed unless called upon." .

. . . . . . . . . . .

The paladins began to filter out of the room. Nara watched Shiro walk out with them.

" _Should I apologize? I feel bad, all hes done is ask if I'm okay and I basically snapped at him..._ "

"Hey Nara?"

Nara almost jumped out of her skin. She turned to see Pidge was standing behind her.

"Oh sorry if I scared you."

"Aha it's okay, don't worry about it." Nara replied, rubbing the back of her head.

"Anyways what's up?"

"Well, I was wondering if I could finally take a look at your back. I've patched up green and won't have much to do since we have all this time off."

Nara thought back to earlier today in the training room.

 _"I know I can control it, I just need to remember the missing fragments of my memory. Maybe letting Pidge analyze it will help._ "

"Sure Pidge why not?"

Pidge beamed at her, a wide grin spreading across her face.

"Great! Cmon follow me." Pidge took Nara's hand and led her out of the room.

She could have sworn she heard Coran and Allura chuckling as they left.

. . . . . . . . . . .

After a long trek through many halls that still confused the castles newcomer, Pidge led Nara into the green lion's hangar. Next to her lion, the green paladin had set up an assortment of monitors and other hardware. Pidge walked up to the main table and cleared a space.

"Okay Nara, come sit up here." Pidge motioned to the empty spot and Nara obliged. She sat with a plop.

"I ah, I'm gonna need you to take off your vest and lift your shirt so I can hook up the cords."

Nara chuckled.

"It's okay Pidge cmon we're both girls."

"Hmph well at least you haven't had to deal with puberty recently..."

That made Nara snort, almost causing her to fall off the table.

"Well I can certainly remember it, and I know it was not fun" They both continued laughing while Pidge prepared for the uplink. She crawled up onto the table as Nara lifted her longsleeve back.

"Alright lets see what we got here..." the green paladin muttured to herself. She gave a quick intake of breath.

"Well this makes things much easier, theres some sort of access port just below the slits on the device." Pidge noted. Nara sucked in a sharp breath of her own. Her memory may be fragmented, but she knew exactly what that access port was for.

"Here we go, aaaaand done, you're all hooked up."

Pidge clicked a long wire into Nara's back, the cable swirling over the table and running up to Pidge's laptop. She could see lists of codes flitting over the screen at high speed. Pidge hopped off the table and ran over to the laptop. She clicked some keys and the images on the small screen popped up on the larger monitor situated behind it.

"Hmm, theres some sort of encryption but I can't tell what it's protecting. From the looks of things it could contain information. This is really interesting, it's like your back is a giant hardrive."

" _I don't know if I can exactly follow your elation bud._ "

"Do you think you can get past the encryptions?"

Pidge rolled her eyes.

"Pssshhh of course I can, just give me a second... And..." The computer gave a triumphant bleep.

"Booyah! And like that, we're in!" Nara would have shared in Pidges excitement if someone hadn't walked in the door while she was holding her shirt up.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

After the talk on the bridge, Shiro had followed Lance, Keith, and Hunk to the lounge. The three boys sat down while Shiro remained standing.

"Well we got six days, what do we do now? Lance said while relaxing into the couch. Hunk sat next to him with a plop.

"Maybe Coran's got some space games sitting around here?"

"Or maybe we should spend the time training." Keith cut in.

"Pssshh we train all the time, you know you are allowed _some_ stress relief once in awhile mullethead." Lance retorted back.

"No wonder you have no coordination..." Keith muttured. Shiro sighed in annoyance.

" _The maturity level is just astonishing sometimes..._ " He thought.

"I agree with Keith, it's smart to stay on our toes in case of an attack. We should spend the next couple of days training together with our lions." He said authoritatively. Keith nodded in agreement while Lance gave a groan.

"Bet you would have let Pidge rest..." he muttured under his breath. To Lances slight embarrassment Shiro had completely heard him.

"Speaking of Pidge, where is she?"

"I think she's with Nara in the lab, Pidge's been egging her on about letting her analyze that Galran tech ever since shes got here."

Shiro looked down at the mention of Nara.

"Oh, I think I'll go check on them, you guys just keep doing... Whatever for now."

With that, Shiro walked out the door. He turned down the corridors towards the green lion's hangar.

" _I hope Pidge isn't making her uncomfortable, it's good they're at least getting to know eachother. Especially since Nara knew Matt... Hopefully Pidge hasn't asked her too much about him..._ "

He arrived at the bay doors and placed his hand on the scanner. The door opened with a woosh. He walked over to where Nara and Pidge were hidden from his view behind the mess of computers. "Nara, Pidge, hows the analysis going?..."

When he turned the corner, he saw Pidge working at the laptop while Nara was holding her shirt up. It was only enough to show a small amount of undercleavage, but it was still revealing. Shiro froze in place, feeling his cheeks grow slightly hot. When Nara's eyes met his, she immediately pulled the shirt as far down as she could. To her dismay, It was slightly caught on the cable connected to her back. He saw her face light up like a Christmas tree before glancing to the floor.

"Oh man that's embarrassing, I probably should have left a message on the door telling people to knock..." Pidge said awkwardly, addressing the elephant in the room.

"Aha uhm, s-sorry about that, I just wanted to check up on how things are going with the analysis." Shiro stammered out.

"It's going well, Pidge has managed to crack the encryption, for some reason there are different files stored within the device." Nara said without missing a beat. Shiro looked back up at her to see that her face was still red. He averted his gaze towards the computer when Pidge started speaking again. The green paladin removed the cable from Nara's back and returned to her position in front of the computer while Nara quickly put her vest back on.

"Yea, and it appears that a few of these are video files... Here let's take a look."

Pidge clicked on a file and a video feed popped up, playing immediately. Shiro heard Nara take a sharp intake of breath next to him, but it didn't take his eyes away from what the feed was playing. It depicted a large room of Galran design, rectangular and lit a deep hue if violet. The feed seemed to be being taken through the glass of an upper balcony area. In the center of the chamber, a girl hung from metal coils attached to her wrists, strung up completely limp.

" _Nara..._ "

Shiro finally turned to look at the real Nara. Her eyes were glued to the screen, wide with acknowledgement towards whatever was about to happen. On the feed, a Galran moved into the sights of the camera. He pulled a long hose that had been resting on a table next to the girl, the hose running up into the cieling, out of the camera's viewpoint. At its end, a large, metal needle about the size of a baseball bat was attached. Holding the hose, the armored Galran maneuvered to the back of the girl.

"Pidge..." Shiro muttered.

"Wait.." she replied firmly.

The Galran positioned the hose so that it seemed to hook on something in the girl's back. Her body swung slightly at the movement. Suddenly, an unknown voice sounded through the speakers.

"Begin quintessional recharge injection no. 13"

" _No... Oh God no..._ "

"Pidge shut it off." Shiro said, more commanding this time. A purple fluid began to run down the hose. The Nara next to Shiro remained still and quiet like a statue, completely fixated on the video, her face sculpted into a stern glare. Shiro, making a split second decision and ignoring Pidge's protests, covered the girl's eyes just as a shriek sounded through the speakers. Before hearing anymore, he quickly exited out of the video, removing his hand from the irritated girl's eyes.

"Shiro, what was that for? There could have-" Pidge cut off her argument when she turned towards Nara.

The woman was studying the computer cords, biting her lip like she was trying to stop herself from crying, her hand trembling as it slid down the length of the wire as if an earthquake were shaking the room.

"Shiro, earlier today you asked me to talk to you and I said I couldn't. This... is what I meant."

.     .     .     .     .     .

Shiro looked over to Pidge.

"Go get Allura and Coran, maybe they can help us figure out what that... stuff was they were injecting into her."

Pidge simply nodded and ran towards the bays entrance. Shiro watched her go until the door slid shut. He then glanced back towards Nara. While wiping at her eyes, she was still studying the computer cords.

"I know what that _stuff_ is." She whispered. Shiro opened his mouth halfway to question what she meant, but Nara had already continued. "They called it dark quintessence. I don't know what it is or what it means but thats what I heard the scientists say."

She began to tear up again.

"I'm sorry I snapped at you earlier I couldn't talk about what they did to me, it's just a reminder..."

"Nara" He interrupted.

She looked up at him with bleary eyes. A knot of empathy twisted in his gut.

' _She shouldn't be apologizing, I pushed her to talk about it..._ "

He walked over and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I should be the the one saying sorry. I pressured you to talk. I just wanted to know because I want to help. It might be hard to believe but in away I know what you're going through."

He held up his Galran hand, looking at it with contempt. She gave a sideways glance towards it.

"Shiro- "

Before being able to say anything, she was cut off by the entrance of Allura, Coran, and Pidge.

. . . . . . . . . . .

Clicks of fast typing sounded through the air as Pidge and Coran continued to look through the other files within the data procured from Nara. Allura stood in front of where the girl sat while Shiro seated himself next to her. Nara wiped her tears with her sleeves.

" _For god sakes Nara you're an adult, calm down._ "

She took a shaky breath, looking up towards Alluras bright eyes. They were filled with concern.

"Nara, you said your memory was fragmented, but you remember these injections correct?" Nara nodded.

" _They deserve the truth, better explain now then later._ "

"I partially lied to you all about what I remember on the ship, I told you that my crewmates were sent away and everything after that was fuzzy." Shiro cocked an eyebrow while Allura crossed her arms, making Nara hesitate.

"That... Wasn't the truth... At least not the whole. There are parts that I don't remember but there are also ones that I do." She admitted. Coran and Pidge turned towards her now. She folded her hands together, unable to meet their eyes.

" ** _Neil!_** "

She could hear the yells clear as day, as if it were happening all over again.

"Andrew and Niel weren't taken to the work camps, at least not right away."

A guilty weight crawled up Nara's gut. It caused her breath to hitch.

" ** _Nara help!_** "

"I wasn't the first they took to experiment on... Neil was."

Her eyes stung but she forced the tears back. She noticed Allura's face soften.

"When they came to take Neil, he fought. Andrew did the same."

_**Andrew wrenched the gun away from the guard.** _

_**"Andrew no!"** _

_**He pointed it towards the Galran holding Neil, but a guard behind him fired.** _

_**"Nara, get up, help me!"** _

_**A sickening SMACK sounded through the air.** _

"When Andrew tried to get the guards gun, he was shot in the back. He tried to get up, but the guard hit his head with the butt of his gun. He went down like a rock."

" _They'll think I'm a coward if I tell them._ "

She squeezed her hands together, knuckles going white. Her tone became angry, oh so angry at no one but herself.

"While all this was going on, I sat in the damn corner, frozen in fear, not doing a single thing while my friend was dragged into hell. They eventually came for me. I begged them to tell me what happened to Andrew and Neil, but they ignored me. Later... I heard them say that test subject number 2 was a failure..." She paused, looking towards everyone. Shiro's eyes were closed while Coran and Pidge looked to the floor. Only Allura faced her.

"What happened next?" She asked softly.

Nara paused, trying to figure out how to phrase her next words.

"I was taken to the labs and they... Put this thing in me."

She avoided gory terms out of respect for Pidge's presence.

"They patched me up and began testing immediately. This thing needs quintessence to function. That's why they injected it into me, or at least into the device so much. This is where it's harder to remember. I would be injected, sent off to testing, and come back again to refuel. The problem is, whenever I was injected, I don't remember what would come after. Its like flitting clips, go to the arena and come back."

"How did you know you went to the arena?" Shiro questioned, finally opening his eyes.

"Because during one of the tests, I regaines conciousness. I don't know how, but I woke up, per se, in the arena. There were... Bodies..."

She remembered that moment perfectly.

_**Nara regained consciousness again, but this time it wasn't in the lab. Chanting thundered at her eardrums.** _

_**"Wha... Where am I?"** _

_**She was standing, facing a crowd of her captors. There were unfamiliar masses littering the floor of the ring.** _

_**"What did I do..." She questioned to herself. She looked dowm at her hands and gasped. There were splotches of different colored liquids covering her body, the same colors of the masses in front of her.** _

_**"No..." She mewled.** _

_**She curled up and began to scream. A shock ran through her body, turning everything black as she thudded to the ground.** _

The memory came to an end there.

"Thats all I remember, I swear it this time." She whispered, feeling defeated. She hung her head in shame.

A metal hand curled around where her fingers had remained balled together.

"It's not your fault, I'm sure you did everything you could." He said in a quiet tone. Nara shook her head and stood up suddenly.

" _I don't want to be a burden..._ "

"I don't want to be here just to depress you all. I want to use this thing to help your cause, do good for the universe. I refuse to be a burden, so I do ask that we don't dwell on what happened in my past."

Allura, looking slightly shocked, soon nodded in agreement.

"You're not a burden Nara, you are a member of team Voltron now, you admitted your past and we trust you for it."

Coran jumped up from the computer table.

"The princess is correct, you're one of us now Nara and will be treated as such."

Nara looked towards Shiro. He nodded to her, giving a small grin. She smiled back.

"Thanks guys... that means a lot to me."

Allura grinned.

"Why don't you go get cleaned up for dinner, Pidge will round up the other paladins while we prepare."

Nara nodded and walked out the door. Shiro got up onto his feet next to Allura.

"Pidge, will you go find the others?" He asked.

She didn't answer.

"Pidge?"

"Hang on a sec, I think we found something interesting here." She tapped the file twice.

A large image covered in Galran language filled the screen. It was laid out like a graph. A picture of an opaque body was sprawled out in the center.

"It seems to be a schematic of the device on Nara's body! This here says activation sequence..."

Pidge clicked another holokey. Suddenly, bright purple lights flowed like webbing throughout the body.

"This is showing how the quintessence travels throughout her body! It appears its flowing through her nervosi..." Coran said slowly. Pidge raised an eyebrow.

"Nervosi? Is that like a nervous system?" Coran nodded.

"How is that even possible? Nerves transmit brainwaves, not liquids." She interjected.

Coran moved closer to the picture to get a better look.

"Quintessence is energy in it's most pure form. Its possible that the Galrans are using the same techniques they use to convert quintessence into energy for their technology here in her body."

He continued over Pidges confused expression without missing a beat.

"Brainwaves are a form of electromagnetic energy, therefore the nerves are what transmit this energy. In this case, quintessence is also traveling throughout her body in its energetic state."

"So this tech is connected to her nervous system?" Shiro cut in. Coran looked towards him with a troubled face.

"Yes, if the quntessence is flowing throughout her body in this manner, it is traveling to her brain as energy. The brain may be emitting this energy through her entire body, just like it would with brainwaves whenever she moves a muscle. Therefore it's safe to assume that the liquid coming out of the device that she controls acts as another appendage, explaining her control over it."

"So basically, she controls the quntessence as a sort of extra limb with her brain?" Pidge questioned, adjusting her glasses.

"Precisely. The Galrans have certainly taken enormous scientific strides during their reign." He finished in a sad tone. Allura noticed it immediately.

"Coran, what is it?" She questioned

The man looked up towards all of them with a somber look.

"If the device has been oriented this deeply into her brain functions and nervous system, we lack the medical means advanced enough to remove it. Nara will have to live in her _condition_ for the rest of her life."

. . . . . . . . . . . .

After some complaints from Pidge about leaving her research, the four headed towards the dinining hall.

"I don't like the idea of withholding info from her, but I think the best thing to do would be to keep quiet about this. She's gone through enough and hearing that she has to live like this will only make things worse." Shiro declared.

The other three agreed without argument. In the meantime, Keith had been in the training room. Upon finishing, he headed to the lounge. The red paladin walked in the room to an interesting sight. Hunk and Lance were sitting across from eachother, leaning over the table between the couches. Some sort of holographic game was laid out over the top of the table. Keith quickly deduced it was some sort of futuristic chess due to the many pieces laid out on a board.

"What are you guys doing?" He asked.

"Playing this game that is literally built to screw me over..." Lance replied while looking over the pieces inquisitively. Hunk laughed at his comment.

"You're just mad because im kicking your butt... At least I think." An ornamental figure drew a blade from a hidden sheath. It slashed at one of Lances bigger peices, causing it to fizzle into sparkles.

"What the Hellllll" Lance moaned, leaning back into the couch.

"Hah, in your face Lance! I told you that piece was a king!"

Keith rolled his eyes and moved to sit down on the couch. He sat next to Lance, who was still cursing at the game.

"Hey Keith, you wanna play? I think I can figure out how to reset it." Hunk asked. Keith eyed the game with distaste.

"No thanks Hunk, maybe another time."

"Aww." The boy slumped on the couch.

The door to their right soon stirred after. Pidge walked through and sat next to Hunk.

"Hey guys, I'm supposed to come say dinners gonna be ready soon."

Hunk perked up next to her.

"Wait wait wait, dinners almost ready? Awwhh no I am NOT letting Coran poison us!"

He lept up and ran out of the room towards the kitchens with athleticism surprising for his build. Keith smirked and turned towards Pidge. Her eyes were downcast towards the floor, and her nose was so scrunched the girl's glasses began to slide down. She seemed... Off.

"Pidge, is something wrong?"

She jumped slightly, as if Keith had scared her.

"Ahuh oh yea, I'm fine." She replied. Lance frowned next to Keith.

"You sure? You look like someone just took your lunch money."

"That is literally the wierdest comparison ever for this situation."

"Oh like you could do better!"

"Actually in fact, I probably could." Keith stated matter of factly.

Pidge narrowed her eyes in annoyance at both of them.

"I would tell you guys if you both weren't _complete_ idiots." She muttured.

Keith, unbeknownst of Pidges comment, finally broke his and Lances bickering.

"Ok my point is, is there something bothering you Pidge?"

She looked down at her hands and hesitated.

" _Matt and my dad could be in the same situation as Nara, what if the Galra are doing the same things to them..._ "

"No nothings wrong, I'm just... hungry and... pretty tired. I was up late last night repairing the lions." She lied.

Keith furrowed his brow while Lance just rubbed his stomach.

"Ugh same, I sure hope Hunk got to the kitchens fast enough to stop Coran."

"And here I thought Hunk was the only one to think about his stomach." Pidge stated with a chuckle.


	9. Homesick

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally a little bit of Klance! :D I hope you all are enjoying the story and I am so happy to see the support!

Thankfully, Hunk managed to make it to the kitchens before Coran started cooking.

"Alright guys eat up!" Hunk announced while handing out plates.

Green food goo surrounded purple, striped bulbs on the plate. The dish was garnished with navy blue plant shoots.

"Wow Hunk what is this stuff?" Lance asked, almost drooling from the smell. A thoughtful expression crossed Hunks face.

"Aahh, I don't actually know... They just tasted good mixed together."

"They're boninian space bulbs and the shoots are stems from the amphibious Xerxes plant." Coran grumbled, crossing his arms in his seat. He was obviously sour about Hunk cooking dinner and the fact that it made the Paladin's quite happy. Shiro and Allura chuckled.

"Thanks for the food Hunk, looks great." Shiro said with a smile.

Hunk beamed while taking his seat next to a quiet Pidge. Allura sat at the head of the table, Coran at her right and Shiro her left. Lance, Keith, Hunk, and Pidge were sitting in that order to Shiros right. Nara was to Pidges right, opposite of Allura. She looked at the somber girl with a frown.

"Pidge are you okay?" She whispered. She took advantage of the fact that Lance and Keith were now arguing loudly about eating habits, drowning out her question to everyone but Pidge.

"Nothing's wrong, I'm just... A little tired..." She muttured. Nara wasn't convinced but let it go for now. She began poking at the strange food (Which she admitted really did taste amazing). After wiping her mouth politely with a napkin, Allura decided to start a new topic of conversation.

"So Shiro, did you and Nara know eachother well during your time at the... Um... Was it called a garrison?" She questioned with an innocent smile.

All eyes fell on Shiro. He looked up mid-chew and swallowed, clearing his throat.

"Y-yes it's garrison, and aah uh well, we didnt know eachother _well_ , per se." He stammered.

" _Why's he stammering so much?_ " Nara wondered. Her face went beat red as the attention shifted to her.

"Y-yea we weren't exactly close, we had a couple classes together and that was it." She spoke up, rubbing the back of her neck.

"Riiiiigghhttt, just had classes together." Lance mocked.

Nara gave him a glare that could light a fire. His cocky face turned sheepish like a scolded puppy. Nara had to admit though, she never did lie to herself about having an attraction towards the man. Even before Kerberos and the Galra, Shiro had always been well-built, and retained a polite personality that she respected.

" _Everyone loved him that's for sure._ "

Nara smirked at the thought. She never did pursue Shiro though, considering he had basically been famous and she figured, well to be quite honest she never had a chance. Therefore their only interactions had been purely related to garrison training.

"Shiro was more of a top of the class kind of person while I was a bit on the average side." She said with a chuckle.

"Thats a lie-" Shiro cut in. "-you were second in our class and almost beat me out plenty of times in the simulator and on the training floor."

Keith cocked an eyebrow.

"She was second in your class? Explains why she was next choice for deep space piloting." He reasoned.

"Does that mean you almost got beaten by a girl in the sparring ring?" Lance said holding in laughter.

"Sparring? During class?" Allura questioned.

"Yes, every cadet training for piloting is required to learn the very basics of medical assistance and self defense in case of unforseen emergencies." Shiro explained. "And yes it does Lance, meaning she could most likely break your arm in one movement." He finished with a smirk.

Lance glanced at Nara, who wore a mischievous look on her face. She winked at him, making the boy gulp.

"Your planet certainly sounds like an interesting place, very different from Altaea, I am quite excited to visit it one day." Allura stated, finishing her food.

"Mmhp, yeah, iths ah gweat pwace, youw'd liwke iht." Hunk answered with a mouth full of food goo.

"Don't talk with your mouth full Hunk, it's gross." Pidge said, slightly annoyed. Hunk gave a big gulp.

"Aah sorry, but yea, Earth is the best place in the universe, when you guys visit you'll definitly have to try the food!"

Coran started twisting his moustache.

"Lance informed me on Earths weather cycles, I would certainly find it exciting to experience rain that doesn't scald your skin." Lance looked towards Coran with a smile while everyone else chuckled.

"Yea, rain is the best. Almost as fun as swimming in the ocean, or spending a day at the beach..." He finished, looking lost in thought.

"A beach? What is that?" Allura asked.

"It's a place where an ocean meets land, its usually covered in super soft sand that gets everywhere, but is fun to run around in. You can surf and suntan and collect seashells, and the sunsets, oh god don't even get me started on those..." Lance looked down again, studying his plate.

"Uhm, anyways thanks for the food Hunk, it was great... I'll bring my plate back to the kitchen..."

With that, Lance got up and left. They all watched him go with somber, knowing looks. With a final bite from a mostly finished plate, the red paladin got up as well.

"I think I'm gonna go clean my plate off too, see you guys later."

Once out the door, Nara noticed Hunk and Pidge give each other impish grins.

" _What's that about?_ "

Hunk rose from his chair next.

"Wellllp I'm gonna go do the dishes."

He proceeded to collect everyones plates and began to walk out.

"Hunk wait, I'll walk with you towards the training room." Shiro said, following after Hunk.

Coran and Allura left for the bridge to check if there were any changes in the ship's trajectory, leaving Pidge and Nara alone.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Keith walked towards the kitchen with slight concern on his mind. His footsteps echoed heavily in the empty halls, as if he were stomping.

" _It's not like Lance to leave a conversation... It's not like anything could be wrong but... He was just fine and all of a sudden, poof, quiet...What's up with him?_ "

Like Keith thought, it's not like he was worried or anything, just slightly concerned for his teammate.

" _After all, Lance could inhibit the whole team if he acts down_."

Keith strode into the kitchen, but it was empty. This confused him, he had been right behind Lance in the hallway.

" _How could he already be gone?_ "

Keith's internal questioning didn't last long, for he could have sworn he heard a snivel. He walked back out into the hallway.

"Sniff"

" _There it was again._ "

Keith turned another corner and finally found the boy. He was balled up facing a window next to the airlock. It was one of the only larger bay windows on the ship and ran half the length of the hallway. Lance rested against the right wall facing the window, the hallway mostly dark around him. Lance had his knees pulled to his chest, his body bathed in the glow of the space outside.

"Lance?" Keith said, voicing his presence. Lance immediately snapped his head up.

Wiping his tears, he stretched out his legs as if he were just regularly lounging in the spot.

"Oo-h hey Keith, what's up?" He stammered out awkwardly. Keith walked towards the boy until he was standing over Lance. The blue paladin turned his face downward.

"Nothing, you just... Seemed upset after you walked out of the kitchen." He answered just as uncomfortably.

"Pssshhh I'm fiiiine."

Lance waved his hand in a dismissing motion. Keith frowned and sat down next to him, Lance refusing to look at him. Keith noticed his eyes were rimmed red.

"You're obviously not fine, you've been crying, not to mention you're sitting alone in a random hallway." He pointed out.

Lance opened his eyes wide and wiped at them again.

"Haha, me cry? Yea right, you're crazy, besides I always come here."

Keith started to get frustrated at Lances denial.

"No you're crazy Lance, I'm not stupid, I can tell somethings eating at you."

"You sure you're not stupid?..." Lance muttured under his breath.

" _Ugh why am I even trying._ "

"You know, I'm trying to help you but you're just being an idiot as usual, so... Whatever." Keith finished with.

He began to get up but something grabbed his jacket sleeve.

"Wait, I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean it, I admit I was crying. Please... Don't go..."

Keith was confused at the sudden outburst, but his face softened, and he sat back down. There was a long pause before he spoke again.

"So, why _are_ you crying?"

Lance crossed his arms over his knees again and dug his chin in, his eyes gazing longingly out the window. He furrowed his brow together.

"Keith, why were you kicked out of the garrison?" The randomness of the question took the red paladin aback. It was certainly a touchy subject for him.

" _Should I tell him? I definitly don't know how else to help him... He's obviously homesick and if answering will help..._ "

Keith let out a long sigh.

"It was because of Shiro."

Lance quickly glanced at Keith with an eyebrow raised. Keith continued without missing a beat.

"I met him when I had just joined the garrison. He kind of took me under his wing, in a way. He was... My only friend at the time..."

" _My only family..._ "

"So when he disappeared, I just kind of... refused to accept it. I went up to Iverson and demanded the truth. When he wouldn't tell me what I wanted to hear, I socked his jaw. I kept throwing punches until another officer pulled me off. After that, I was kicked out, bags packed and all." He finished.

"I knew it was because of Shiro"

Keith looked up at Lance in annoyance and confusion.

"How would you have known?"

"When we all first met as a group, you and Shiro gave off that vibe that you knew eachother, plus he never introduced himself to you in the shack." Lance answered matter of factly.

" _Wow, must be why he asked... Guy's smarter than I thought._ "

"You're lucky... You still have Shiro around I mean..." Lance said quietly.

Keith turned his head towards Lance again.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Lance remained quiet. Keith sighed in annoyance.

"Lance, I know you miss Earth... But it's been months, and it's just something you'll have to accept. You need to be strong for the team. We all have insecurities and showing them just brings eachother down." Keith reasoned. The blue paladin furrowed his brow.

"It's not that... Well it is partly... But not completely..." His voice started catching. "I've just been thinking a lot lately... Not just about Earth. B-but the-m..." He paused.

"They who, and what Lance?" Keith asked softly. It was like Keith broke something in the boy, like a dam of emotions. His words were the final pickaxe in the mine of the blue paladin's psyche. Lances resolve suddenly shattered. Hot tears flowed freely down his cheeks like a river now.

"T-they... M-my family... I just left th-them, Keith, they don't even know I-im alive..." He sobbed into his knees. Keith's chest felt heavy at the sight.

" _So this is how he's felt..._ "

Here was this guy who always seemed cheerful, always laughed things off, and always got on Keith's nerves in some way. Here he was, dumping out his deepest darkest insecurities to someone like Keith, someone Lance saw as his rival. The fact that he was this trusting of Keith, hurting so badly, in a way it cracked Keiths heart a little.

" _I don't want to see him like this... I want to help him... I don't want to see him cry_."

Keith found himself wrapping an arm around Lances shoulders. Lance looked up in shock, the glint of the stars shining through the window, reflecting on the boy's tears. Keith didn't know why he was doing this, but in some wierd way, it felt... Right.

"You'll be okay Lance, I promise."

Keith brough his other hand to the side of Lances head. The blue Paladin's skin was soft in Keith's palm. Lance succumbed to the pull, and rested his forehead into the slot of the red paladin's shoulder, pulling them both into a half hug. Pink began to dust Keith's cheek.

"I promise I'll bring you back to them."

Keith felt a panging flurry of emotions that he did not understand. For some reason, he wanted Lance to see his family again. He never had a family in the sense of parents and siblings. Keith's family, including Lance no matter how insufferable he could be, was here now, on the ship. Unlike him, Lance still had a home on Earth. The last thing Keith wanted was for Lance to feel the pain, the emptiness of being alone. He wanted Lance to know he had a family here as well... And a friend he could trust.

"Thank you Keith." Lance whispered.

They sat in silence for awhile, resting in eachothers arms as the nebula outside washed the blue and red into a warm violet light.

. . . . .

Pidge was walking down the hallway towards the green lion's hangar. She had her hands stuffed in her pockets, and her eyes followed the lines on the floor, deep in thought.

" _I need to find them... Please maybe Nara's data can give me just one clue!_ "

She thought back to the videofeed that Shiro had covered her eyes during. Pidge was very intelligent, it'd take a lot more than a hand to stop her from deducing what happened in the video.

" _That could be happening to dad and Matt..._ "

"Pidge, wait up!"

Pidge suddenly perked up at the sound of someone calling her name. She turned to see Nara jogging towards her.

"Oh hey Nara, what's up?" She questioned as the woman came to a stop next to her.

"Oh ah well, you see, I was just wondering if you were alright, you seemed pretty somber during dinner." She responded, looking down at Pidge with worry.

"I've already told everyone I'm fine, can't they just leave it alone!" She snapped a little too harshly. A hurt expression shadowed Nara's face for a second before turning into worry. It made Pidge regret her outburst.

"I-im sorry I didn't mean to..." Pidge said sheepishly, unable to look at Nara's face. Nara sighed and kneeled down, placing a hand on Pidge's shoulder.

"I know what you're thinking, you're worried about them, about what the Galrans are doing to Sam and Matt." Pidge met Nara's soft gaze with a look of shock, but Nara continued anyways. "I can at least give you this reassurance Katie. I was tested for a long time in that place. Many many subjects went through those halls, and I saw no traces of humans within their labs, not once. They're alive in the work camps I just know they are, and we will find them." She said reassuringly, finishing with a smile.

Pidge began to sniffel and returned Nara's smile with an even wider one. She almost tackled Nara with a bear hug.

" _She's right, they're alive they have to be..._ "

"Thank you, thank you so much you have no idea how much it means to me to hear that..." She muttured shakily into Nara's shoulder. Nara returned the embrace, softly carressing the girl's hair. "Anytime Katie, us girl's gotta stick together right?" Pidge chuckled, and shifted away from the woman.

"I'm going to go analyze the rest of the data from your back, I'm sure it will give me information I need" A wide smirk covered the green Paladin's face.

"Okay, sounds like a plan Pidge!" Nara gave her a high five.

" _If a lie will keep her spirits up, then I'll just have to play devil's advocate... I rarely remember leaving that charging room, only the memory of the arena, at least there weren't any humans there so maybe it's not a complete lie after all..._ "

With renewed determination, Pidge turned and ran down the hall into the hangar.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Hunk was cleaning dishes when Keith and Lance walked by the kitchen. Hunk couldn't quite put his finger on it but they seemed... Different.

"What are you guys up to?" Hunk questioned while scraping at dried goo gunk. The red and blue paladins froze in their tracks, Lance answering first.

"Oh you know just strolling around, working off that delicious dinner you whipped up." Hunk was so happy at the compliment that he didn't notice Keith snort at the blue Paladin's comment.

"Well I'm glad you liked it, by the way you up for another round of alien space chess!?"

"Ooh man you're on, I know which pieces are which now so you're goin down!" Lance exclaimed waving a fist in the air.

Keith sighed next to him.

" _One moment he's crying in my arms and the next he's as idiotic as ever._ "

Keith's cheeks dusted light pink as he smirked at the thought. He noticed Lance and Hunk staring at him.

"Keith you alright?" Hunk asked.

Keith could feel Lance's azure eyes boreing into him.

"Yea, what did you say again?"

"We we're asking if you wanted to join us we could teach you how to play."

"Might have to teach yourself how to play first Hunk" Lance said sarcastically, folding his arms.

" _At least he's happy for now_ " The red paladin thought with surprising satisfaction.

"Uh sure, why not I guess." Keith answered with a shrug.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

With a final jab, the sparring bot Shiro was up against fell to the floor. The computer voice of the training room sounded overhead.

" _Melee Training Sequence: Level 3 Completed._ "

The man could feel beads of sweat trailing down his brow. He had discarded his black vest before training for a more free range of motion. He could feel his gray longsleeve clinging to him like a second skin, making him grunt in annoyance. He wiped his forehead with the back of his hand.

"Begin melee training sequence level 3 times two." He commanded, slightly winded.

He decided to refrain from using his prosthetic since there were no weapons to be used with the melee bots.

" _Beginning Melee Training Sequence: Level 3, Spawning x 2._ "

As he caught his breath, two gladiators without weapons spawned in front of him. Shiro welcomed the challenge. The robot on his left charged first. To Shiro's suprise, it lept into the air and shot it's foot straight towards the black Paladin's head. Shiro brought both arms up quickly to deflect the kick. The robot fell down and rolled backwards. Shiro barely had any time to twist and catch the second bots jab at his face. He caught the gladiators fist in his metal hand and twisted sharply. The gladiator fell to it's knee. Shiro's focus turned sharply back to the second bot when it kicked at Shiro's head. The kick was true and sent the man spinning to the right. Shiro managed to stay on his feet and quickly brought both his fists up in ready position. The second bot was back up and it's hand sparked slightly where Shiro had crushed it. Both sprinted at him simultaneously. Shiro watched the first bot wind up its right fist and ducked as it punched at Shiro's face. He deflected the second bots jab at his left side with his palm and quickly jumped upward, uppercutting the first bot with his human hand. It stumbled back, mostly unharmed. He turned, only to get a jab to his gut from the second bot. Shiro doubled over and felt a knee connect with his face causing him to roll backwards onto the floor.

" _Ugh, what's wrong with me today..._ "

He usually sparred much better than this, but today he felt... distracted. He got up, clutching his gut. Getting a metal kick to the stomach was not exactly a fun feeling. Regardless, he got into ready stance again. Breathing heavily, Shiro watched both bots slowly circle about ten feet away from him.

" _One will try to distract me and the other will charge at my back._ " He figured.

He decided he would roll out of the way when the second attack came, no matter which side from. There was movement in his left peripherals and he turned his gaze towards the bot on his left, now charging at him. He ducked and jabbed his leg out, tripping the bot and causing it to flail forward. Throwing away his earlier resolve, he jabbed his now glowing hand through the robots chest. It disappeared in a woosh of sparks. Shiro immediately readied himself for the second assault, but faltered as the sparks cleared. A puzzled look arose on his face when he saw Nara resting one foot on the bot that was now sparking on the ground.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Nara watched in awe as the glow faded from Shiro's prosthetic. A confused look colored Shiro's face.

"Nara? When did you come in here?"

"I walked in when you got knee'd in the face, after the bot behind you charged I figured you could have used some help." She said with a smile.

"Oh." Was all he replied with.

Nara's eyes flickered down to his metal arm.

"Looks like I'm not the only one with a trick up their sleeve."

He lifted his hand, narrowing his eyes at it.

"Ah yea, sorry for not mentioning what it could do, it must be a suprise, it just never came up when we were explaining everything"

Nara chuckled.

"It's okay trust me it's not the wierdest thing I've seen..." She trailed off.

Nara felt her eyes travel up his arm towards his torso, which was outlined very well by his tight longsleeve. His outfit really didn't leave much to imagination. Nara felt her cheeks heat up.

" _Jeez it's like the guy survived on protein shakes and steroids..._ " Nara's study faltered when she noticed Shiro watching her intently.

"Aahum, haaave you been here since dinner?" She questioned while rubbing the back of her neck. He folded his arms.

"Yes I have actually, did you come here for some training?"

"Yea, figured there's not much else to do for tonight."

" _Not to mention I probably won't get any sleep anyways..._ " Shiro broke through her somber thoughts.

"Well, if you need a partner I could use some more reps myself." He said, giving a small grin.

Nara opened her eyes a little wide at the suggestion but it quickly turned into a sly grin.

"Sure why not, just like old times right?" She answered, walking closer to him. He chuckled at that.

She stopped moving when there was about a 5 foot gap between them, and raised her fists.

"Ready?"

"Ready."

Nara may not have had strength anywhere close to Shiro's, but she was fast. She darted forward, attempting to land the first blow with a wide kick. Shiro deflected it and Nara immediately jabbed at him. He dodged each punch easily with hands up, left right left. They went on like this for at least 5 minutes straight, Shiro jabbing back at her whenever she left an opening.

" _He's faster than he looks..._ " She thought, catching her breath.

Nara stopped for a second and Shiro finally took his chance. He grabbed at Nara's wrist and twirled her around. Before he had a chance to kick the back of her knee and force her to the ground, she quickly drew her left elbow back. She felt it connect with something and Shiro let her go. She quickly turned around ready to retliate, but stopped when she saw Shiro's face. She had cut his lip, and he now reached his hand off to wipe the blood.

"Oh shit, Shiro I'm sorry I didn't mean to..." She walked forward, hand outstretched to check the wound. He quickly grabbed her arm and forced her to the ground, pinning her down by her shoulders. A smirk crossed his face while he held her shoulders. He towered over her, straddling her left leg.

"Heh, just like old times indeed." He chuckled. Nara snorted in annoyance.

"That's not fair I was checking if you were okay!" She retorted.

"Well you should have expected it, the enemy's not going to go easy you know."

"Tch, still cheating..." She muttured. Her eyes met his and they both paused. Time seemed to slow to a crawl the moment she met those silvery orbs. He gazed back, loosening his grip on her shoulders, but not removing his hands. She didn't attempt to get up, and immediately felt herself blushing.

" _Nara..._ " He whispered, almost inaudibly. She had still heard him, and her heart began to race. All of a sudden, he pushed back, and rose to his feet.

"I um, I think thats enough training for today." He stated while helping Nara to her feet. Without a second glance, he turned on his heels and walked towards the door.

"What... What just happened..." She wondered, holding her shoulder, where the warmth of his hand still seemed to linger. Shaking her head, she remained in the training room all night long, knowing that sleep would continue to evade her.

. . . . . . . . . . .

The next four days were quite uneventful. Nara hand not spoken to Shiro alone since a couple nights ago, and she didn't know wether to be bothered by that or not. She distracted herself by learning more about the other paladins and their personalities. Hunk let her help him cook dinner last night, and he was elated to find she at least partially knew what she was doing. He told her about how he, Lance, and Pidge attended the garrison together.

"It honestly wasn't that much of a shock that Pidge was a girl, it actually explained a lot, I can't believe that Lance didn't figure it out." He chuckled. Nara had broken out laughing, knowing the blue paladin could be quite dense. The others seemed fine with her, even Keith shared the occasional short conversation at dinner. Yet, something continued to trouble her. She had realized she was terrified of sleeping.

" _I can't face those nightmares I just can't_ "

Therefore, Nara decided to spend the nights training with the device. She was finally beginning to have an idea of how to activate it. Yet, it took immense concentration to keep her mind while fighting. It terrified her, but she knew she had to learn to control it, or it would control her. Thus she faced the challenge with reslove and determination each night. She kept her training hidden from the other paladins, and was almost caught by Keith the night before. She had been walking towards the training room when the red paladin had voiced his presence.

_"Nara aren't you going to sleep? It's really late, and the quarters are this way." He motioned to a hall to his right._

_"O-oh y-yea haha thanks Keith, I guess I'm just still getting used to this place." She stammered, walking down the hallway he had pointed to. Keith raised an eyebrow as Nara waved at him._

_"Thanks again, goodnight." She smiled, disappearing into her room._

She shrugged off the memory as she continued with her routine for tonight. While walking down the hallway, an announcement broke the silence. Allura's voice resounded over the castle loudspeakers.

" _Paladins, to the bridge, we have a situation._ "

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you expectin some heavy Klance I say sorry for the wait, for the good stuff comin but it's coming later on.


	10. Infection

Minutes after the announcement, everyone had quickly gathered in the bridge.

"Princess what is it?" Shiro questioned as everyone took their place behind the center dias. Allura was facing the main computer screen in front of them, a look of concern crossing her face.

"It seems there is a prominent distress beacon located on a planet we will be passing towards our destination." She pulled up an image of a small planet to the left of their trajectory.

"Do you think it's worth checking out?" The red paladin asked, folding his arms. Allura sighed and  turned to face all of them.

"We defend this universe, if any beings freedom is threatened, no matter what, then we will be there to protect them."

A murmur of agreement ran through the paladins, echoing around the bridge.

"Won't this take time away from us following that Galran ship?" The yellow paladin questioned in concern.

"It's alright Hunk, the ship will not arrive at it's destination for another projected two Earth days. We will have time to catch up."

With a confident smirk, Shiro put his hands on his hips.

"Well then that's a plan, lets suit up!" He commanded.

. . . . . . . . . . .

All the other paladins headed towards their respective hangars while Shiro was waiting near his transport for Nara to arrive. To his concern, Allura agreed for Nara to tag along on the mission.

"Are you sure princess? I mean it may not be safe, we might have to fight." He argued. Allura met the black paladin's gaze with a stern expression.

"According to you and the other Paladin's, she is more than capable of protecting herself, unless you have reason not to trust her I see no reason as to why she should not be allowed to help. After all, we need all of the hands we can get."

"Yes princess of course I trust her but I'm just worried that..." Their argument was cut off as the doors wooshed open and Nara walked into the bridge with Coran.

"There you go! State of the art spacesuit, fresh off the projectors!" Coran proclaimed quite proudly. Nara was adorned in a space suit similar to Allura's, yet hers was accented silver and black instead of pink. Pads like the paladins suit's were fitted on her shoulders, elbows, and knees. The suit tucked around her back and was sealed around the device, allowing for use in the field. She held a matching helmet in the nook of her left arm.

"Thanks Coran, it fits great." She smiled, putting her helmet on. Nara walked towards Shiro and Allura, Shiro giving a concerned sidelong glance at the princess while she watched Nara with ignorance of the paladin's gaze.

"It's perfect Nara! Alright both of you two are ready to go." Allura stated happily.

"Ok, so let's head to the lion... WAAHG!" She exclaimed as the platform shifted. Soon, the black Paladin's dias travelled down the tunnel towards the hangars. Nara stumbled and grabbed at Shiro's shoulder for balance, causing him to chuckle.

"Not. Funny." She spat out.

"Ohoho trust me, that was pretty funny." He chortled. The platform stopped in front of a long zipline.

"Hold onto my waist." Nara complied with slight hesitancy, and with a suprised gasp, Shiro lifted them both up to the zipline in one bound. He held onto the zipline with one hand, his other arm supporting Nara. At the end of the tunnel, Shiro jumped down to the speeder first, Nara soon landing in his lap with a plop, causing the black Paladin to grunt in pain.

"Jeez, aren't you supposed to ask me to dinner first?" He joked as the speeder traveled along.

"Hah. Hah. Veeerrryyy funny" Nara replied curtly, her face going beat red. She refused to meet his amused eyes while in such an embarrassing position.

"Hey you wanted to come along." Shiro replied lightheartedly. The speeder whizzed up to the black lion's platform, where it connected with the lion in a large _clang_. Once inside the piloting compartment, Nara carefully removed herself from the mans lap, causing them both to blush.

"Ah, so this is the inside of a lion... Huh..." Nara questioned, trying to shift the tone between them to a more lighthearted note.

"Yea, it's pretty amazing." He replied flipping up a few switches. She nodded in awed reply.

"You might want to hold onto something." Nara, refusing to repeat the incident on the speeder, grabbed onto the pilot chair with a tight grip. Shiro flew the black lion flew upward out of the hangar with all of the calculated grace of a true prodigy pilot. The comms in her helmet quickly came online.

"Shiro what took so long?" Pidge questioned.

"Sorry Pidge, my fault, I decided to tag along." Nara replied into the transceiver.

"Ooooohhh so thaaaats what took so long..." Lance replied in a suggestive tone.

"Lance. " Shiro barked sharply. The blue paladin surprisingly went silent. The lions flew in complete unison towards the planet. It was covered in a thick, sand colored cloud layer.

"Paladins, the clouds are not allowing us to observes the planets surface. Our scans show it to be solid but please remain wary."

"Yes princess, alright here's the plan; Hunk, Pidge, remain airborn in the lower atmosphere. Lance, Keith, we will take the rest of the lions to the surface to investigate." Shiro commanded. Pidge and Hunk broke rank while the rest of the lions flew towards the surface. Passing through the cloud layer, they found the giant rock to be quite an interesting sight. The planets surface was extremely rocky and uneven. Winds whipped sand streams over the stone outcroppings, sanding down anything in their path. Few trees were on the surface, and ones that actually grew appeared sickly.

"Jeez, do you think anyones even alive here?" Keith wondered out loud.

"Hopefully, the beacons active and coming from this direction." Shiro answered optimistically.

He directed the lion black towards a massive stone plateau. Blackened trees surrounded it's base, and purplish water ran in a river weaving around the massive, flattened platform.

"Look!"

Nara pointed to a small village nestled into the side and base of the plateau. The houses were round and shell like, jutting into the side of the stone, dark grey blemishes on the sandstone colored surface.

"Looks like that's where the beacons coming from, lets go."

Shiro landed the black lion at the rim of the tree line, just outside of the village. Keith and Lance followed in unison. With a clang of the lion's maws, all four of them met and began to walk towards the village.

"Stay frosty guys im picking up movement near you in the village." Pidge informed over the coms.

"Roger that." Shiro replied. The four slowed their through the pitch colored thicket of trees, Lance and Keith both with their beyards activated. Suddenly, something rustled in the bushes to their left.

"Ah what was that?!" Lance exclaimed.

"Calm down Lance I'm sure it was just the wind." Nara chastised. She still had to admit, the silence in the black forest was unsettling though.

"Hey I'm calm im calmity calm calm you know?" He replied shakily. All of a sudden, a scurrying sound shuffled next to him. Lance looked to his left and with a shriek, fell to the ground.

"AAAGH GET IT OFF ME GET IT OFF ME!" He yelled rolling in the dirt. Shiro ran over and, before Keith could slice at the small creature assaulting the boy, picked it off in one quick motion.

"Lemme at him, lemme go you invaders!!!" The small creature squeaked out. Shiro just gave it an exasperated, albeit slightly confused, look.

"Awww it's kinda cute" Nara cooed. The creature Shiro was holding by the scruff of it's neck was no larger than an average dog. It was lime colored and speckled with brown spots. The thing had six legs, all with three fingers at their ends. It also had large, round, opaque eyes resembling that of an opal. It's long, rabit-like ears perked up at Nara's comment, and the creature swished its lizard-like tail angrily.

"How DARE you call me cute! For that I will kill you! and defend my village from the rest of you!"

"Well I guess we found one of the villagers." Keith stated, folding his arms and sheathing his beyard. He took a step to peer closer at the raging creature, still tight in Shiro's grasp.

"Lance you were scared of this... Thing?" Keith half chuckled. Lance sprung to his feet.

"That. THING. Is a menace!" He spat. Shiro pinched the bridge of his nose before regaining composure.

"Please listen, we are not here to harm you or your village. We picked up your distress beacon." Shiro said to the wierd lizard spider. The creature stopped struggling for a moment. Shiro slowly put, what we assumed was a him, down and he scuttled away from them in a patch of cleared dirt. He sat on his haunches, observing the group warily.

"You are not contaminators?" He questioned caustiously. Lance stomped towards him.

"No, do we look like contaminators to you? We're here to help your freakin village you dumb little..." At that, the creature snarled and pursed it's lips. With a quick pucker, it spat a ball of blue goo right into the Paladin's face.

"Gaaahh!!! WHY I OUGHTA..." He exclaimed, wiping the harmless sticky goo from his visor.

"LANCE, that's enough!" Shiro commanded. The creature was rolling on the ground from laughter now.

"Cmon Lance, you asked for that from a mile away." Keith cut in. 

"Cheeky bugger isn't he?" Nara muttured next to the red paladin. She walked over and kneeled down to him, where the spider immediately perked up in a defensive stance.

"We apologize for our friends behavior sir, is it okay of I ask your name?"

"My calling is Bitsler." It almost seemed to spit out. Nara kept her tone even with a tinge of sweetness coating it.

"Well Bitsler, I am Nara, this is Shiro, and those two are Lance and Keith" She motioned to her companions. "- we are here to help whatever problem your village may have, I promise that. Do you trust me enough to take us there?"

She gave Bitsler a warm smile. Bitsler's face seemed to relax, his stance faltering. He looked over his shoulder in contemplation before turning back towards Nara.

"I will... trust Nara, Nara is nice, Nara doesn't pick me up or hurt me." He replied. With lightning speed, Bitsler crawled up Nara's arm where it clung to her shoulder.

"Follow." Bitsler commanded, pointing towards the plateau. Keith and Shiro looked at Nara with jaws dropped in awe while Lance just looked straight dumbfounded.

"What? Sometimes all you have to do is be polite." She said shrugging her shoulders.

. . . . . . . . . .

Shiro had called Pidge and Hunk down to the surface after deciding the creatures were, well, mostly harmless. Eyeing the new arrivals warily from his perch on Nara's shoulder, Bitsler led them to the village. Allura had informed them that Bitsler and his kind were called Spitraries (Spi-trar-ies). They were apparently very adept to this sort of climate, their large eyes shielded from wind and many legs carrying them at great speeds. Upon arriving, they learned spitrary village contained very rudimentary technology, to Pidges dismay. It was mostly in ruins, which Hunk had asked about but Bitsler just shushed him. He led them to one of the largest and most decorated pod-like structures.

"Enter, the cheiftan will speak with you." With Shiro and Nara leading the way, the paladins crouched down into the small entrance. Thankfully, the roof of the structure was tall enough for even Shiro to stand straight in. The hut itself was decorates with different assorted cloths and metal structures. It seemed to split off into hallways on either side. At the far end of the room sat an extremely eldery, gray-bearded version of Bitsler flanked by two more creatures wielding metal, glowing spears. Bitsler jumped from Nara's shoulder, and bowed in front of the cheiftan.

"Great elder, I have brought newcomers who claim to have heard our pleas." The two guards in front of Bitsler stepped away for the elder to walk forward.

"Strangers, we thank you for coming, what do you call yourselves?" The elder questioned raspily.

"We are the Paladin's of Voltron sir, defenders of the universe." Shiro said while bowing, mimicking Bitslers manners . The rest of the crew awkwardly followed his action.

"We picked up your distress beacon and want to know if you need assistance." He continued, straightening back up. The elder stroked his beard in understanding.

"Aaaahhhh Voltron you say? I haven't heard that name in hundreds of years..." He mused.

"Pidge, hold up your hologramer please." Allura suddenly asked over the comms. The group had left the intercom open in order to allow Allura to hear everything going on. Pidge held up a triangular silver and blue device in her palm. A small version of Allura's figure flashed into place.

"Hello great elder, I am princess Allura of Altaea and these are my paladins, I am very appalled to hear that you've heard of us." The elder nodded.

"Yes, the story of Voltron was an old wives tale passed down through my family. The tale tells of great beasts coming together to defeat evil." Allura nodded in reply while the elder continued. "Does this mean you were the ones to defeat our oppressors all those cycles ago? And bring about our famine?" He questioned neither accusingly nor kindly.

Confused looks arose on the group's faces. "I'm sorry sir but we have never actually been to this planet." Shiro stated. Hunk chimed in next to him.

"Yea like we would have remembered coming here I mean this place is pretty strange and desolate, I'm sure..." He stopped when he recieved glares from Keith, Lance, and Pidge about the "desolate" comment. The elder sighed.

"Yes it is true, this place is desolate due to the rule of the Galra. Our planet was not always this barren. The Galra came for our resources, but mysteriously left after strange flashes lit the night many moons ago. They left their facilities abandonded and in ruins."

"You're saying the Galrans just left after this strange light event?" Allrua asked in alight disbelief. The elder nodded again while Bitsler scuttled forward.

"That place has poisoned our rivers. Violet death travels downstream from the plant, infecting our people in turn, and transforming them into... Monsters." He finished angrily, his little fists clenched into balls.

"M-monsters?" Hunk stammered.

"Yes, once infected, they turn a sickly black and travel to the facility in the dark of night, never to be seen again." Bitsler answered. The elder coughed in a warning at the young spitrary.

"So you see, we need your assistance to save our people. We ask you to travel to the plant and stop this death from entering our waters." The elder rasped. Allura didn't even miss a beat.

"We would be delighted to help kind sir, please lead us to this place and we give what assistance we can." She said with all the determination of an Altaean leader.

.     .     .     .     .     .

Upon leaving the village, the paladins gathered by where they had left the lions.

"Pidge, can you bring a specimen back up to the castle, we can analyze it's properties and maybe even synthesize an antidote." Allura stated over the coms.

"On it." Pidge replied. While the green paladin went to work, the others came up with a plan.

"Alright, the five of us will go to the facility and figure out what's draining into the water while Pidge, Allura, and Coran make the antidote, any questions?"

"Yea, what do we do if we run into alien zoooooombiiiiies?!" Lance exclaimed, striking a zombie pose. Shiro gave an exasperated sigh.

"They aren't alien zombies, they're villagers, we won't use force unless absolutely neccessary."

"Does it count as neccessary if one tries to bite my face off?" Lance muttured in reply. Keith punched his shoulder, getting an annoyed grunt from the blue paladin.

"Guys I have the water sample, and I'm heading back to the castle." Pidge radioed while entering her lion.

"Alright, lets head to the plant then, everyone to their lions." Shiro commanded. One by one the lions followed after their leader's takeoff, the green lion breaking off to where the castle floated above the atmosphere.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Allura peered with great interest into a glass case in which the purple liquid was suspended. Chemical equations flowed down a holographic chart at her side, which Coran was keeping track of. Pidge stood behind them, peering over their shoulders curiously.

"Well, can you tell what it is?" Allura turned to her with a quizzical expression.

"It's strange, but the properties resemble that of liquified quintessence...."

"Why is that strange?" The green paladin asked, raising an eyebrow. Coran was the one to answer this time.

"Because quintessence is extremely rare in this form. Considering it is the essence of a planet, quintessence in this form is very hard to mine... And quite the crime to do so."

"Why a crime?" A somber look crossed the man's face at the girl's question.

"Because extracting liquified quintessence is like draining a planet's life force, it's almost the same case as the balmera but not in crystalized form." Allura squinted at the holographic chart again.

"Something is wrong with this quintessence, it's almost like its been contaminated with something... Dark..."

"Makes sense considering the Galra are involved right?" Pidge pointed out.

"Yes, which would mean Keith's claim that the Galrans are extracting quintessence and turning it into this form from other worlds is correct, explaining their military prowess." Coran muttured out loud. Pidge furrowed her brow.

"So can we synthesize an antidote?" Allura shook her head.

"There is powerful magic at work here, unless we find a way to counter the effects, which we most likely can't, there is nothing we can do."

"What about on the balmera, you gave it's pure energy back, is there a way we could do that here?" Pidge questioned optimistically.

"I don't know Pidge, I..." She paused.

"Actually... Maybe we could..." She replied thoughtfully.

"Princess, what are you thinking?" Coran questioned in a slightly concerned tone.

"Maybe we could purify the quintessence if I had a crystal. I can resonate its energy with the water at it's source and maybe it will counter the effects!" She exclaimed. Coran brought a hand to his chin.

"It may work... But there is a possibility it might not... You don't have an unlimited amount of quintessence or a balmera to assist you this time." He answered worriedly.

"Don't worry, the ceremony will be on a much smaller scale this time, I could use a crystal from one of the pods! Let's inform the Paladin's, Pidge, I'll need a ride." She said authoritatively.

. . . . . . . . . . .

The lions soared through the air northward towards the ruined facility.

"Alright guys get ready, we're almost here." Shiro announced, pulling the thrusters back to slow down. Over the black treeline, a large ruined building came into view. The plant was situated into the side of a cliff that was perpendicular to the river. Below it, another cliff ran adjacent to the body of water, and two large pipes cut into the cliffside dripped dark sludge from their maws.

"This place really is a dump." Keith muttured over the coms. The lions landed on a large ruined metal dock that was cut into the land, possibly the remains of a runway. They all gathered outside their ships. All of a sudden, Allura's voice came online.

"Paladin's, Pidge, Coran, and I may have a plan to stop the contamination."

"Well, lets hear it." Shiro replied. Allura then explained their plan to the rest of the paladins.

"Uh, is that gonna be safe? I mean what if you turn into a zombie?!" Hunk exclaimed with a worried expression. Allura gave an annoyed sigh.

"Although I thank you for your concern, that is VERY unlikely to happen Hunk."

The green lion soon came into view overhead and landed next to the others. Allura walked out first, then followed Pidge, who was carrying a blue crystal that was a little bigger than a basketball.

"Alright, now that everyone's here, let's move." Shiro commanded, leading the way to the facility entrance. Everyone followed in unison. Nara glanced down to Pidge, who was having trouble carrying the awkwardly shaped rock.

"Here, lemme help you with that." She chuckled, lifting the crystal into her long arms.

"Heh, thanks Nara." Pidge replied a little sheepishly.

The entrance to the factory was torn down but still had enough room for everyone to fit in. The doors led into a long hallway, at the end of which opened into a catwalk overlooking a factory floor. The group walked down the crumbling catwalk carefully, analyzing their surroundings.

"It seems to be an old airship factory." Allura stated, gazing from the conveyer belts to the high ceiling decorated with wierd alien gizmos. They walked down stairs to the far end of the room, which another torn up hallway led to a large flight of stairs going further downward.

"We don't know what's down there, everyone stay on their toes." Shiro ordered, once again taking the lead. At the bottom of the stairs, Shiro activated his hand for more light. Pidge did the same with her beyard. A wash of green and purple spread through the dark to reveal an extremely long, straight hallway. Lance gave an audible gulp, gripping his gun tighter. The end of the hallway split perpendicular, the right way collapsed.

"Guess we go left." Nara voiced. Eventually, the corridor, which had a few branching passages here and there, ended with a large pair of dented and cracked double doors. With a few slices of his hand and a strong kick, Shiro had the door open. They walked slowly into a large rectangular room. The group found they were up on another grated boardwalk. Empty and cracked quintessence pods lined the right wall next to a crane-like machine.

"Guys, take a look at this." Keith said, motioning everyone over to the edge of the railing. Below them was a hexagonal platform. Under the group, two gigantic pipes were fitted below the boardwalk. Water trickled slowly out of them traveling under the grated hexagon. At the platforms center was a huge machine with a large glass containter fitted into it. Many chords and pipes ran into the ceiling above, yet some were hanging in shreds. A layer of violet glowing liquid could be seen inside of the glass tube, lighting the room around them.

"Lets go down there, cmon." Shiro reached out and, to Nara's embarrassment, pulled her close. She clutched the crystal in her grasp tighter as a distraction.

"Oh yea? How are we gonna do that?" Lance whispered in an angry tone.

"You are a real idiot." Keith muttered next to him, activating his jetpack. Lance gave a dumbfounded "oh" that only made everyone else sigh in exasperation. One by one, Hunk holding Allura and Shiro doing the same for Nara, they flew to the platform.

"This must be some sort of reactor, and the stuff inside has to be leaking into the water and flowing out those pipes." Pidge stated. She pointed to another set of pipes parallel to the ones trickling clear water. Yet, these ones contained dark purple liquid that was built up around the pipes edges. Allura approached the reactor carefully.

"It seems you are correct Pidge. Nara, please bring the crystal to me." Nara walked forward and handed Allura the shining rock.

"Keith, if you would please, just don't let any liquid leak." Allura said, motioning to the glass. With a smirk, Keith took his sword and broke the glass just above the liquid.

"Allura, with all due respect, how do we know this will even work?" Shiro questioned as the princess gently lowered the crystal to a point where it was barely touching the liquid.

"Frankly, I don't to be quite honest, but we have to try, we don't have any other ideas." She answered, closing her eyes in focus. To everyone's awe, the crystal began to resonate with the princesses aura, giving off a faint glow. Slowly, the quintessence around the crystal began to turn blue.

"Paladin's, I'm afraid this may take more than a tic of time." Allura stated in a strained voice.

"It's alright princess, just keep focusing." Shiro replied. It took Lance less than two minutes to get bored.

"Here's my question, why haven't we seen any alien zombies yet?" He questioned with a quizzical facial expression. Keith felt like he wanted to just slap the blue paladin into next week.

"Will you stop with the alien zombies already? We don't even know if the story about them is true!" He exclaimed. Hunk shrugged next to them.

"Keith isn't wrong, after all it's been pretty quiet down here." He reasoned. Nara chuckled at the argument. She was leaning against the wall opposite of them with her eyes closed, deep in thought. For some reason, she felt extremely uncomfortable in this place. Her spine was prickling and it made her fingers tingle.

" _It must be the quintessence here... I haven't been recharged in awhile though. Then again, did I ever even learn how often they refueld me? It's not like I remember..._ " Something in the distance made her fingers twitch again. Her eyes suddenly shot open.

"Guys I think something is coming." She said in a very serious tone. Shiro turned from where he was watching Allura complete the ceremony. The quintessence in the tank was almost completely blue, and the runoff even began to shine indigo.

"How do you know?" The black paladin asked. He received his answer when a scuttling sound reverberated off the walls.

"How long till the ceremony is finished?!" Keith exclaimed. The crystal in Allura's hands had changed to a dull purple.

"Almost there, just one more minute..."

"Aaahhh we may not have a minute!" Lance claimed, aiming his beyard towards the runoff pipes. Many pairs of gleaming eyes began to show in the tubes black depths, causing the blue paladin to squeak in fear. Small growls sounded through the air like a tune.

"Ah man, I don't think these guys like purified water!" Hunk exclaimed worriedly. The now completely blue runoff began to seep towards the creatures. They hissed at it's presence, and turned their attention back to their intruders.

"Okay time to go!" Shiro commanded. Pidge, Keith, and Lance flew up to the scaffolding where they came in. Hunk grabbed a now faint Allura who still managed to clutch the infected crystal in her grasp. Shiro ran towards Nara and scooped her up into his arms.

" _Man I need a jetpack!_ " She thought awkwardly. Once up top, everyone looked back towards the creatures. They began to flow like a swarm out of the pipes, scuttling towards their prey.

"KEEP MOVING!" Shiro yelled. The group sprinted down the corridors back towards the top. Nara turned her head, and to her dismay, the aliens were faster, much much faster.

"Guys they're gaining on us!" She exclaimed. Shiro looked behind him and cursed under his breath.

"Use the jetpacks to fly out of here!" He ordered. One by one, the crew flew in a line through the halls, Pidge in the lead and Shiro bringing up the rear with Nara holding on tight. They reached the main floor of the factory and flew towards a large gaping hole in the ceiling.

"Aww yea we're gonna-AGH"

whatever Lances statement was going to be was drowned out by his shout. He fell to the ground outside the main wall of the factory at the edge of the metal platform, his jetpack smoking and giving off sparks. Everyone flew down to him.

"Lance, what happened, are you alright?!" Keith exclaimed, helping him up.

"Ugh, don't worry I'm good, but one of those things shot me!" He yelled, clutching his head in his hand. Shiro furrowed his brow, thinking back to when Lance was shot by Bitsler's goo. His fears came to life when a purple gunk shot landed at his feet, leaving a burn mark on the metal.

"Take cover!" He yelled. The group ran to the middle of the platform, where silver outcroppings lined the runway perpendicularly. They all dove behind cover just in time for a barrage of purple bolts to fly from the entrance of the factory.

"Why aren't they following us?!" Hunk exclaimed, mewling when a gunk shot barely missed his head. He brought his hands protectively over Allura. Pidge peered over the edge of the metal. She saw the beasts falling over eachother, but never leaving the shadows of the building. One fell into the sunlight and hissed in pain, it's skin smoking.

"Guys, the sun hurts them, they can't chase us!" She exclaimed.

"Good eye Pidge. Okay guys, shields up, on my mark we make a break for the lions! Lance, Hunk, lay some cover fire to scare them, but don't hit them!" Shiro commanded. The Paladin's brought up their holographic sheilds one by one.

"Ready... GO!"

The group made a break for it towards the lions. Hunk and Lance backstepped, shooting at the wall above the creatures. Their action stalled the infected spitraries momentarily, but they soon regained their courage. Hunk turned his head for one second to see how close they were to the lions.

"HUNK LOOK OUT!" Lance tried to warn, but wasn't fast enough. He watched in horror as a goo shot hit Hunk directly in the side, causing him to fall to the ground in a howl of pain.

 


	11. Sleepless Nights

A howl of pain resounded through the air behind Nara. She whipped her head back and saw Hunk fall to the ground, clutching his smoking side. Shiro stopped midstride next to her.

"Lance, Keith, give Hunk some cover! Pidge, Allura, and Nara keep moving!" He yelled, breaking into a sprint towards the yellow paladin. Lance and Keith brought up their shields in front of their comrade, deflecting the barrage of  goo shots. Nara ignored their leader's command and followed him to where Hunk was now bleeding onto the ground. She slid to a stop on her knees.

"What are you doing? Go back ot the lion!" Shiro ordered, ducking as a spout of goo narrowly missed his visor.

"You'll need help carrying him!" She interjected. With a grunt of annoyance, he didn't push the matter further. Instead, his eyes travelled to his comrades flank. Nara sucked in a sharp breath upon inspecting the wound further as well. The goo had hit the fabric on his right side and burned through. It had even melted through patches of skin, leaving sweltering blisters and burnt pieces of flesh where the fabric was liquified. There was a large patch in the middle of the wound about the size of a softball that was bleeding profusely.

" _We can't move him like this or else he will keep bleeding..._ "

"We have to close the wound." She stated out loud in as good of a level voice as she could manage for the situation. Shiro looked at her like she was mad.

"How will we do that we don't have any medical supplies, if we move him now we can-"

"And I'm saying that we don't have time!" She yelled, gritting her teeth. If anything was her forte, it was knowing how to handle tense situations like these. This skill is honestly probably what's kept her from going insane from being tortured all those months. Shiro stopped his argument at her snap, eyes widening. Nara ignored it and tried her best to think back to her garrison training. An unpleasant conclusion came to her mind.

"I can burn it shut with a plate, they're hot in the quintessence, It'll hurt, but at least we will be able to move him." She stated. Shiro looked her straight in the eyes with an intensity that could melt metal. Nara held his gaze with complete confidence, her face solid like stone. He looked back towards their injured friend, Shiro cursing under his breath again. She knew that he had the same medical training as her, he would know there was no other way.

"Fine, I'll lay some more cover, just hurry."

With that, he ran to the red Paladin's side, bringing up his own shield. Nara turned her attention back towards Hunk, adrenaline shooting through her system like a coursing drug now.

" _Okay... Here we go..._ " She peered closely at the bleeding section. It looked clean enough. Nara had to hope so, considering there was no way to disinfect it currently at her disposal. She began to level out her breathing.

" _Focus... Focus..._ " She chanted to herself. Her back began to tingle at her mesmerizing chant.

" _You can help him, cmon you NEED to help him!_ " A familiar grating sound scraped behind her, for the first time a welcoming sound. She didn't bask in her triumph for long, continuing her work. A small puddle of blood was pooled below Hunk now, his breathing shallowing.

_"I have to hurry before it get's worse"_

Nara flicked her wrist, bringing a plate forward in a string of light. It floated just above her hand, inches from the wound.

"I'm sorry Hunk, this is gonna hurt real bad bud." She breathed out. With a count to three, Nara pushed her wrist forward, the plate meeting the wound. The smell of burning flesh immediately filled the air again, stinging her nostrils like a thousand bee stings. Hunk wailed in pain and lurched his back upward. Nara quickly swung her left hand downward, forming a barrier over Hunk to pin him down.

" _One... Two... Three... Four... Five... Ok enough!"_

She brought the plate, now covered in blackened blood, back from the flesh and rested her hands at her sides. With a swish, the quintessence returned to it's resting state behind her. To her relief, the wound was now successfully burnt shut.

"Shiro!" She called. He turned towards her yell, and seeing that her deed was finished ran to Hunk's side. Nara and the black paladin lifted the now unconscious Hunk up with a bit of difficulty, careful not to disturb the freshly closed wound.

"Keith, Lance, keep laying that cover..." His command was drowned out by a sudden shadow covering the sun. The green lion lept over the group in a single bound. It bounced in front of the group, sheltering them from the barrage. Pidges voice soon came over the intercoms.

"Hurry!" She exclaimed.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Pidge and Allura returned to the village to inform the spitraries of their success while everyone else flew back to the castle in order to take care of Hunk.

"Coran, we need a medical pod readied stat." Shiro radioed in. Nara sat on the floor behind him, keeping a sickly Hunk upright. Other than the occasional groan, the yellow paladin was quiet.

"How's he looking?" Shiro asked without turning around. The blood on the side of his paladin suit may have been sickening to think about, but the state of Nara's bloodied hands were a much worse thought.

"He will make it, but we need to hurry." Nara replied. A wave of guilt washed in her gut as the adrenaline began to fade.

"Shiro... I'm sorry for arguing with you, I should have listened when you told me..."

"Stop." He interrupted sharply. The girl flinched at the paladin's quick cut off. He frowned at himself for snapping before continuing.

"Nara, if you had listened to me, Hunk would be in a lot more trouble, you have no reason to apologize." His tone growing softer with each word. She nodded in reply, not knowing what else to say.

The castle soon came into view through the thick clouds. Shiro skillfully landed his lion in it's hangar, where Coran waited with a stretcher. Nara and the black paladin hoisted Hunk out of the lion, down the lion's open maw, and onto the stretcher. The three of them then sprinted to the healing pods.

"What happened?!" Coran exclaimed mid jog. Shiro explained everything on the way, allowing Nara to remain silent.

"Oh dear, poor boys lucky it wasn't his head!" The mustachioed man muttured under his breath. They reached the med bay and began to strip the armor off of the yellow paladin. Leaving him in the bodysuit, they lifted him into a healing pod. With clicks from a few holokeys, a layer of frost quickly traced over the boys skin and suit. At that moment Lance and Keith finally rushed in.

"How is he? Will he be okay?!" Lance exclaimed in a worried tone. Coran sighed and smiled.

"His readings are stable, no major arteries appear damaged so he should be fine in a day or two." Lance let out a breath of relief along with everyone else.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

"Princess of Altaea, we thank you and your Paladins most deeply. Through your heroic actions our people are now safe from the infection."

The cheif finished his thank you and the crowd of spitraries around Pidge and Allura cheered. Allura gave a slight bow.

"You are welcome most kind cheiftan. Hopefully we have cured your water supply, and those who were infected should heal and return in time." The cheiftan nodded and Allura furrowed her brow. "If I may ask sir, do you have any idea of who drove the galra away from this planet?" Pidge lifted an eyebrow at the princesses question, wondering the same thing herself. The cheiftan stroked his long beard.

"I am quite sorry your highness, we know not of who our emancipators were. All we witnessed were bright blue flashes and explosions that lit the sky, and then nothing."

"Hmmm" Allura hummed. After a moment of contemplation, she addressed the waiting chieftain. "Well, I am just happy that your people are free now. Please contact us if you are ever in need of assistance again." Bitsler came scuttling through the crowd, stopping in front of a somber looking Pidge.

"You, tiny one! Will you say goodbye to friend Nara and others for me? Bitsler will miss them." He asked sadly. Pidge smiled with the sincerest of grins.

"Yea, I'll be sure to do that." Bitsler's face lit up in a smile as Allura placed a hand on Pidge's shoulder.

"We best be on our way." The green paladin nodded and turned towards the entrance of the village.

"GOODBYE" The spitraries chanted as the two walked towards the green lion.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Upon returning, Allura and Pidge found Shiro and Coran in the bridge. Pidge ran forward and barraged Shiro with questions.

"Shiro! Is Hunk alright? Where is he? Is he in a healing pod?" The black paladin held up both hands as if to protect himself from the girls assault with a small chuckle.

"Relax Pidge, don't worry, Coran says he should be fine in a day or so." Pidge's shoulders sagged as if they had been carrying a great weight.

 "That's fantastic news!" Allura exclaimed. "Thank goodness he is alright." Shiro gave a wide smirk to the princesses exclamation.

"Yea, it was mainly thanks to Nara really, she stopped him from bleeding out, she was pretty incredible." Allura and Pidge glanced at eachother, both with eyebrows raised and mischievous grins plastering their faces.

"That is certainly good news, it's great to hear what a good addition to the team Nara is, _and_ how well she is getting along with everyone, _especially_ you Shiro." Allura stated, walking around him towards the center dias. He looked back and forth between the back of Allura's head and Pidge in confusion.

"Ah dah bu-ah w-what do you mean?" The black paladin stammered, pink slightly dusting his cheeks.

"Oooh nothing, nothing at all. Anyways, you should let everyone know we are going to resume our original course from before our slight detour." Allura said, any joking tone aside before immersing herself in a conversation with Coran. Shiro turned to Pidge who was grinning like an idiot.

"I'm just gonna go work in the hangar a bit, see ya later."

With that, the girl spun on her heels and hurried out the door, leaving the black paladin to just sit and shake his head in bewilderment.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

After returning from the mission, Keith had stripped his armor to take a well deserved and long overdue shower. As he was toweling off his mop of black hair, his thoughts travelled back to the events earlier in the day. He remembered running towards red, Lance right behind him. Then he remembered Lance shrieking a horrid sound, as if the blue paladin himself had been hit. Keith shook his head to clear out the memory with an angry shake.

"Lance went to the garrison with Hunk, of course he would be worried, they're friends after all." He breathed out slowly.

" _Why am I even thinking about it, Lance is just a nuisance anyways._ " Yet, as much as he hated to admit it, Lance had been on Keith's mind a lot lately. It bewildered him completely. Lances stupid jokes drove the guy nuts almost as much as his smile nowadays, but for some reason, he found himself looked forward to them, as if they were a source of comfort. Even just days before, to his complete embarrassment, Keith had... _watched_ Lance taking his armor off, not staring but just stealing the slight glance here and there. He noticed how the black fabric hugged the boys surprisingly toned muscle. The red paladin had of course ripped his eyes away with a bundle of confusing emotions from anger at himself to wondering why his face was turning red.

"There's no way in hell I would ever like that guy, he's just so... Insufferable."

Keith had never told anyone he was gay. After all, there weren't many people in his life to come out to. He even kept it a secret from Shiro, his most trusted friend, because no matter how kind or caring of a person Shiro was, he feared it would creep the guy out. Zipping up his boots, Keith stalked out of the locker room towards the training floor, ready to let off some steam. He gave an annoyed grunt once he arrived, for Nara was already in there. He watched the woman fight for a minute or so, noticing she wasn't using her weapon. After all it was quite a prominent part of her and pretty damn hard to miss when she _did_ use it.

Nara dove around the bot with complete precision, waiting for an opening to strike, the action actually impressing the red paladin. Keith thought about asking to join her but got a sour taste in his mouth. Right now it was obvious he wanted to let off his frustrations alone. At that moment, as if called upon, Keith's stomach growled loudly. He chuckled, rubbing his empty gut.

" _Maybe a bite to eat will make me feel better"_

With a quick turn on the hard heels of his boots, he headed towards the kitchen. Upon passing by the med bay, Keith stopped in his tracks. A slight mumble, or at least it sounded like a mumble, had caught the red paladin's strangely strangely acute ears. He peered around the archway leading to the med pods. To his suprise, Hunk wasn't the only person in the room, Lance sitting next to the pod, his arms wrapped around his knees. He was speaking softly enough where Keith couldn't hear what exactly was being said. Keith crept around one of the pods, straining to hear what the blue paladin was saying.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Lance tightened his arms around his legs, ignoring how stiff he felt. The boy had been in that position ever since everyone left to do their own thing after putting Hunk in the pod. After sitting quietly for awhile, Lance just started talking to fill the silence. He had been reminiscing to Hunk about the past couple years, everything they had done together.

"Heh, remember the first time you came home with me for Thanksgiving? Ah man the moment you walked into the kitchen with an apron on my mom loved ya. She won't admit it to you directly but your cooking is almost on par with hers haha..." He narrowed his eyes, burying his chin into the folds of his jacket.

"You know, I never understood why she didn't want me to join the garrison, to become a pilot."

He shook his head slowly, causing the fabric of his jacket to emit a scratchy sound.

"I told her, how could anyone be against becoming a hero?" He paused again, looking up towards the large blue light towering over the domed room.

"You know, I think I finally get it, what she meant through all the disapproval and worry. I know now that heroes... Aren't meant to survive..."

It was at that moment Keith chose to reveal himself from his position behind a pillar. Lance almost jumped out of his skin.

"WAH, KEITH GOD WHAT THE HELL YOU ALMOST GAVE ME A HEART ATTACK." He yelled.

"Sorry, didn't mean to." He replied in a monotone voice. To the blue paladin's slight dismay, the red paladin took a seat next to his blue teammate. Lance felt his face go red with realization.

"How much of that did you hear?" He questioned, turning his head away. He couldn't face Keith out of embarrassment.

"Just the last bit."

"Ah." Lance replied, his cheeks growing ever warmer.

"You're wrong you know." Lance perked his head up at that.

"About what?" He asked in a slightly annoyed tone. Of course he was wrong about something _again._

 "Heroes not surviving." Keith said softly. Lance furrowed his brow, not expecting that answer.

"And how can you be so sure?" He eventually questioned.

"Because we will survive. We'll be okay Lance..." Hearing that made Lances blood boil. He was usually cool, collected, and in a laughing mood, but something in him snapped, an insecurity he kept hidden from his friends in the deepest recesses of his soul. He suddenly stood upright.

"And how can you be so sure?! Look Keith! Look at my best friend! He could have died today..." Keith grew ever more annoyed at each of Lance's words, it now his turn to stand up.

"Look you know what!I CAN SEE THAT... And I don't know how, but I know we'll be alright! I've been alone my whole life Lance. Here on this ship, its the first time I've ever felt like ive been a part of something... Special." He paused. It wasn't exactly his plan to spurt out his deepest insecurities but here he went on anyways. "And I will do anything to protect that family, meaning you too!" Lance gritted his teeth.

"I don't want you to get hurt, you don't need to say that for me..." He mumbled angrily. Keith's anger rose to a breaking point.

"I DON'T CARE IF I GET HURT PROTECTING YOU, I CARE ABOUT YOU TOO MUCH YOU IDIOT!..." They both froze, darkest of indigo eyes locked with deepest of blue. The whirring sounds of the advanced technology around them were drowned out by the boys heartbeats. Lance could feel the cursed organ trying to break out of his chest. Keith's face was a tomatoe red now, matching the color of his jacket.

" _Did he just... Confess to me?_ " Lance wondered.

"You... You... I mean... You care about me?" Lance questioned softly. Keith looked downward, eyes bugging out of his head without a single sound. Lance walked forward, reaching his arms out to place them  on the red Paladin's shoulders as if to force an answer out of him. He decided against this action and simple just gripped at Keith's jacket.

"I... I... I mean you're a part of the team after all... So of course I would care if you're safe its the same... With everyone..." Keith muttured, unable to look Lance in his sky-blue eyes.

" _...Oh..._ " Lance felt like some hope building up inside of him topple a little.

"Oh." He replied, removing his hands grip. He found himself chuckling, a defense mechanism for the boy in awkward situations.

"What's so funny?" Keith questioned a bit annoyed.

"Heh n-n-nothing haha, it's just... Thanks Keith, for saying that to me. It... Makes me feel better, a lot better actually." He finished with a wide grin. A shocked look of confusion shadowed Keith's face. With a shake of his head, it was quickly replaced with a smirk.

"Heh, anytime, after all we can't have you draggin down the team by being all mopey." He replied in his usual condescending tone.

"Oooohhh so thats the way it's gonna be mullet head?" Lance said half laughing, half accusatory.

"Yep, basically." Keith crossed his arms. "Well, I was about to go get something to eat, you coming?"

He began to walk towards the doorway with a quick pace.

"Uh yea, sure wait up!" Lance called, chasing after the paladin. Lance couldn't quite put his finger on it, but something had just changed between them. It was like, there was a mysterious force pulling him towards Keith, like a rubber band, the more you pull the tighter it becomes, the more you want to let go and watch it fly home. Of course, Lance would never admit to that though, and neither would Keith, both being the ignorant lovable idiots that they are.

.     .     .     .     .     .     .

 

 

Pidge inspected the sickly purple crystal sitting in her makeshit lab with great care. She remembered what happened last time a contaminated gem was hooked to the castle and kept all inspections a scans length away.

" _Maybe there is a way to reverse the effects... Allura absorbed this infection into the crystal instead of purifying it... But what if we somehow extracted and analyzed it a bit more..._ "

"What do you think green?" She asked, looking up from where she had been peering at the pulsating crystal towards the large lion. Just as she thought it would, the metal beast remained silent. The green paladin sighed and continued to stare at the crystal, her meditation soon interrupted by a call for dinner over the castle loudspeaker.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

After dinner finished, everyone headed to their rooms.

"It think we all deserve some shut eye after today's events." Shiro stated out loud as the four paladins and Nara walked towards their chambers.

"Ahhhhwww, you could say that again." Lance yawned.

After a series of goodnights, everyone disappeared into their chambers with many whooshes of advanced doorways. The hall was soon silent, only the scuttling of faraway mice echoing in the air. Yet, after about a half hour, a whirring broke the silence. Nara crept out of her door quietly, inspecting the hopefully empty hallway. Once content, she quietly hurried past the bedrooms and down the hall towards the training room. She turned down the corridor just in time to miss the sound of another door opening perpendicular to her own room's.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Nara sat on the training floor in a criss cross position, her eyes closed in great focus. A bead of sweat trailed down her brow as she kept her breathing evenly timed. Willing the device to her commands always took great concentration, especially in her weakened state. Without quintessence, she surely would have fainted from exhaustion due to lack of sleep. Yet, a familiar tingle ran from the top of her spine all the way to her toes, keeping her awake. From there, it grew into a constant prickling. She looked down to see her veins begin to faintly glow, a grating vibration reverberating behind her. She smiled, and rose to her feet, the quintessence behind her swaying. Instead of feeling like burning lava like in her states of panic or anger, the quintessence was more of a warm honey flowing through her body, moving slowly like a mesmerizing molasses. Her vision remained clear in this calm state, the violet missing from her view. She took one more deep breath before speaking.

"Begin training sequence level four please." She asked loudly.

The usual computer voice replied overhead.

" _Beginning Training Sequence, Level Four_."

The gladiator fizzled into shape in front of her, sword ready in hand.

" _Alright, here we go._ " She thought, lunging forward with a cry.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Nara would, if asked, consider herself a person who was acutely aware of her surroundings at most times. Yet, she remained completely oblivious to the dark figure that had watched her train over the past three days from the shadows of the control room. There, Shiro sat at the edge of the console, crossing his arms.

" _How does she do it... She can't possibly fight a level four after missing three nights of sleep..._ "

Shiro wanted to confront her about the issue, but just couldn't decide how to go about it. She would surely argue with the man.

"My you humans sure are against beauty sleep." A charismatic voice sounded behind him, breaking Shiro's internal argument. He flinched in suprise at the sudden noise.

"O-oh hey Coran, you're still up?"

The orange haired man nodded, waltzing forward.

"I was checking on some of the corridor lights near the med bay, they seemed to be flickering lately. Anyways, I could ask the same of you." He said pointedly, twisting his moustache.

"Ah, yea, just couldn't sleep." Shiro replied, looking back towards Nara.

Coran followed Shiro's gaze.

"Hmm.. Ah I see she's back at it again." He replied in a knowing tone.

Shiro looked at him in suprise.

"You've known she's come here?"

Coran raised an eyebrow at him.

"Why of course! The training floor does keep a log of how often it is used, did you not know this?"

Shiro shook his head.

"I doubt she knows that either, she hasn't slept in three days and hasn't exactly mentioned it."

Coran nodded his head, making an "oh" with his mouth. He smiled softly. They were both quiet for a minute, watching the girl advance at the robot with great skill, that is, until Coran broke the silence.

"She's lucky."

Shiro furrowed his brow at the well dressed man's comment.

"How so? As in to be alive?" Shiro questioned. "Yes I would agree with that..."

Coran cut him off.

"Not that, well yes of course she is quite fortunate in that aspect. But, Shiro, I am referring to the fact that she is lucky to have someone like _you_."

Shiro now fully turned his head towards the Altaean in slight confusion.

"What do you mean? Everyone here trusts her and she knows that."

Coran shook his head.

"What I mean is you are close to her. You are someone she recognises in this strange... Situation, and even understands what she's been through. Take Allura for instance. I cannot imagine what I would have done if she wasn't here. I would have been completely alone in this universe. You paladins would have been here, but you were strangers to me when we woke up."

He looked somberly off into space.

"Nara has not known us for long, except you. That girl down there is frightened out of her wits. You should let her know she can take heart in the fact that someone else understands." He finished with a deep breath.

Shiro stared at him, his mouth slightly agape.

"Uhm, well... I've tried..." He stammered, not really knowing what to say.

"Then try harder. Otherwise that girl will probably drop dead from exaustion within the week!" Coran exclaimed dramatically.

A smile broke out on the black Paladin's face and he chuckled.

"I... I will be sure to do so, thank you for the advice." He replied genuinely.

Coran beamed at him.

"Well I'll be off now, goodnight and good luck!" He said with a wave, walking out of the room.

Shiro shook his head chuckling, and returned his attention to Nara. She thrust her arm forward in a chopping motion, and the quintessence surged forward, slicing off the robot's head with one fell swoop.

At that, he got up and walked towards the door.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Nara was forced to take a knee after decapitating the gladiator. Her mind and body were worn thin, but she pushed herself off the ground anyways. Sweat trickled down her brow and she flicked it away with a grunt, causing the quintessence behind her to stir awkwardly.

"Nara." A voice called out.

She jumped at the sound, turning towards it in a defensive stance. Shiro stood in the doorway with his arms crossed.

" _Busted..._ " She thought grimly.

"Oh, Shiro... I didn't know you were still awake. I'm sorry if I woke you, I was just working off dinner."

She rested her arms at her sides, the quintessence sliding back into its rightful place in the device. The warmth faded immediately, leaving a cold sense in Nara's fatigued body. She shivered slightly at the chill left within her, but soon forced her muscle spasming to still as Shiro walked towards her, stopping just a foot away.

"I know what you've been up to Nara, you haven't slept in three days." He stated neither accusatory, nor softly.

" _Well shit_ "

"Oh... Is there a problem with that? I'm not disturbing anyone am I?" She replied nonchalantly, placing a hand on her hip.

Shiro sighed, crossing his arms again.

"You need to sleep Nara, I can tell you can barely stand, you're completely worn out."

Nara held his gaze, furrowing her brow.

"It's fine, the quintessence keeps me awake-"

To Nara's complete annoyance, Shiro cut her off mid excuse.

"It's not fine, that stuff may be in your body but you still need to stay healthy on a physical level. You can't last like this, not sleeping for three days..."

"Actually, it's five..." She muttured.

Shiro's eyes widened.

"You've been awake for _five_ days?" He questioned in disbelief.

She nodded, averting her gaze to her left.

Shiro knitted his eyebrows together in worry.

"Nara... Please... I know it's hard... But you need rest."

The words cut into the girl like an axe. Usually she would have been ecstatic at any contact with Shiro as he rested his human hand on her shoulder. Yet, in her annoyed state all she did was whip her eyes sharply up towards him.

"You _know_ it's hard, you just _know_?"

In any other instance Nara would have felt bad about replying so sarcastically, but she was growing ever more annoyed. He looked away from her face.

"Yes I do actually, I know it's hard to face the nightmares, to relive things each night. I may not remember everything, but there are still images that I'd rather not... Recollect." He replied quietly.

Nara froze.

" _So he does have them too.._ "

She shook her head, averting her eyes.

"And how do you deal with them? How can you just face that every night? I can't... I won't.. It just... Hurts..." She stammered out, a sob beginning to catch in her throat. She hated the thought of crying in front of him, but there was just so much built up. Shiro stared directly into her hazel eyes, orbs that seemed to put a sunset to shame with their light, as if to try and will them to look at him.

"It hurts, it's terrifying. I used to not be able to sleep either. I would just work out all night long.-"

Nara snickered softly under her breath.

" _Explains why he's so toned._ "

"-but I still tried, and eventually it did get easier, but it took time. You have to face your fears or they will take over you." He finished.

A fat teardrop rolled down her eye now. Shiro raised his hand to wipe it away, but she backstepped.

"I can't..." She managed to sputter out, shaking her head. "I can't face the fact that I... I failed them, every single night. And what about today?! What about Hunk? I've been given enough power to decimate an army. Even with all the power of the Galra I still can't even protect one person!" She yelled, now completely broken down.

"I don't want to accept that, I just... Can't..." She sobbed miserably.

Without saying a word, Shiro quickly stepped forward. He reached his arms out and enveloped the girl in his grasp, into a tight hug, a shield from all her deepest fears. Her suprised face quickly rested in the crook of his neck. She felt his warm breath glance off her cheek.

"You aren't helpless. I know that's how you're feeling. What happened in the past hurts, but you have to accept that it wasn't your fault. Neil and Andrew... Even if you had fought, there is nothing you could have done. I've... Had to do the same with the Holts..." He whispered.

Her sobbing slowed as Shiro continued.

"As for today? You saved Hunks life, you saved him Nara, nothing changes that."

She nodded slowly.

"So please, promise me you'll at least try? Things will get better, but you have to try."

She stood wrapped in his arms for what seemed like hours but passes as minutes. Her breathing evened out and she moved to wipe off the stains in her cheeks. She felt his grip loosen from where it was wrapped around her waist.

"Tch... I'm sorry, you know I'm not a crybaby." She said softly.

He chuckled.

"It's fine."

She lifted her head, but didn't step away from his embrace.

"I don't want to be alone..." She whispered.

He narrowed his eyes in sympathy, understanding how hard it was to sit alone, facing the dread that they had been put through. He wanted to help her, god he felt like he _needed_ to. An awkward idea popped into the Paladin's head.

"Then stay with me tonight."

At that she backstepped out of his grasp, looking at Shiro as if he had just suggested to blow up Earth. Both their faces grew cherry red.

"Sorry?" She managed to croak out.

"ah, I-I didn't mean l-like that, I just meant... If you wanted me to wait with you... until you fell asleep that is..." He stammered, rubbing the back of his neck.

Her shock diminished slowly into a smile. She giggled slightly at how red he was. Nara walked forward and gave him another hug, making it Shiro's turn to be suprised. She lifted her head to meet his eyes.

"That would be great... Thank you Shiro."

He smiled and nodded.

"Cmon." He cocked his head towards the door.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

The door wooshed shut behind Nara as Shiro led her into his room. She glanced around, taking in her new surroundings. Not much was different from her own room besides much more neatly folded clothes and the paladin suit suspended in a lit case opposite of the door. Her eyes travelled around in a 360 until they rested on the man in front of her. She felt her cheeks grow hot, and a feeling of regret sat at the back of her mind.

" _Maybe this wasn't such a good idea_ "

Shiro motioned to the bed.

"You can sleep here, I'll take the floor." He said calmly.

" _Well he certainly seems more sure of himself._ " She thought in annoyance. The blush on her cheeks only seemed to spread and she prayed that he hasn't noticed.

"Nope, you take the bed, I take the floor." She stated, pointing to the mattress.

A whispered argument ensued in which, due to overexaustion and crankiness, Nara definitly LET Shiro win. She found herself pulling the sheets over herself as Shiro sat against the far wall. He balanced his arms on his knees and leaned his head back.

Nara narrowed her eyes.

"Aren't you going to make a bed?" She questioned.

"I will once you fall asleep, I promised to stay up with you remember?" He replied, resting his eyes. Nara let out an annoyed huff.

"Definitly don't remember that part." She muttured to herself. Shiro chuckled, obviously hearing the comment. After a time of silence, Nara's thoughts traveled back to the events earlier in the day. Guilt began to claw at her throat, a dreaded feeling twisting her innards.

"Shiro?"

"Hmm?" He hummed.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you today, during the incident, it wasn't my place to do that."

He let out a long breath.

"Its alright, you made the right judgement call and took it, that's respectable." He stated matter-of-factly, his eyes still closed. All of a sudden, there was a bang on the wall behind Nara.

"Oh god we get it she apologized, please GO TO SLEEP!" Pidge yelled, muffled by the wall.

Both their eyes bugged out of their heads in surprise and embarrassment. Yet, after shared soft giggles pulled from overexaustion, sleep took them both.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

That night was the most sound night of sleep Nara had in a year, or at least half of it was. Around what she assumed was considered midnight, strands of memories pulled at her previously silent mind. Flashes of violet and other faces popped in and out of the dream like an old flash move, until Nara finally woke up with a start after a particularly violent image. She glanced over at Shiro, who slept soundly against the wall. His head was cocked to the side in a way that would surely give him a crick in his neck. Nara sighed.

" _I knew he would forget to make a bed"_

Her face flushed at recollecting the events of the night, but she ignored it in an attempt to reach slumber again. Yet, even through a half hour of tossing and turning, she still couldn't fall back asleep. Hissing in annoyance, she looked towards the black paladin again.

" _He's gonna wake up freezing..._ " She thought.

Nara watched him for a minute with fascination, jealous of how he really was able go sleep so soundly. His head flopped to the side made him look almost childish. She couldn't lie about how he looked pretty adorable like that. After thinking through their conversation and their encounters over the past couple days (She was still pretty irritated about when he walked into Pidges lab), a thought clicked in her head.

" _Ah screw it I'm already in his bed_."

With that, she twisted out of the covers, tip toed over to the sleeping man, and slid quietly next to him. Slowly, as to not disturb him, she pulled the blanket over his knees and tucked it around the man's broad shoulder. Nara clung to the other end and leaned into him, resting her head in the crook of his exposed neck. To her surprise, Shiro didn't even flinch, his breathing remaining even. With a sigh, she basked in his cozy warmth, allowing sleep to overtake her again.

 

 

 


	12. Of Mysteries And Men

_Earlier that week..._

Commander Thrace strode as slowly as he could possibly manage through the halls of the central command without raising suspicion. He dreaded the thought of arriving at his destination. Ever since the general's assistance in the Voltron lion's escape over a month ago, he remained quite  apprehensive at facing the emperor. After all, he had committed high treason of the worst order by allowing Zarkon's one weakness to slip from the emperor's grasp, therefore if anyone were to know of his wrongdoing he would surely be put to death, or worse be handed to the druids. It was key to his mission to remain trusted by the high ruler of the universe, failure meant destrucion and the total annihilation of billions of innocent life forms. Thace paused outside the massive double doors leading to the throne room, waving aside the guards. His footsteps echoed in the large room as he approached the imposing throne. With a bow at his emperor's feet, Thrace announced his presence even though he was sure the emperor was aware of it.

"Emperor Zarkon, I have just recieved reports of a massive quintessional flare in the Everscor system, just as the druids had predicted." There was a heavy, thick silence in the air as his leader took in the general's report, then the emperor spoke.

"Rise Commander Thrace." Zarkon waited to continue as Thrace rose to his feet. Thrace's eyes rested soley on the thrones imposing inhabitant, ignoring the witch that stood everpresent at his side.

"Which planet in particular is this event taking place." His question was phrased deeply as more of a command.

"Sir, the planet's name is Eviscia, we have a colony located there and it's population is within our control."

Zarkon's head moved downward in thought, a position that made Thrace twitch uncomfortably. Creator knows what goes on in this demon's mind.

"Tell the colony to cease all operations immediately and double the guard patrols. We will be sending reinforcements shortly."

Thrace's face twisted in confusion.

"Sir, if I may, would we not double our efforts to mine the extra flares of energy?"

Zarkon's eyes narrowed at his assumption. Thrace's gaze flickered warily between him and the now smiling witch.

"Thrace, need I remind you that you are one of my most trusted generals, do as command unless you wish to lose that privelege." Thrace nodded slowly and bowed again.

"I will alert the colony. Repid Sah." With that he turned and left the throne room. Zarkon watched him leave, a feeling that left daggars in Thrace's back long after he left.

"Lord Zarkon, it seems our efforts are finally coming to frutition." Haggar cackled softly. Zarkon rested his hands under his chin.

"We cannot lose yet another access point, Haggar, you and I will join the reinforcements-." He was cut off by a sudden urge to cough a throaty gagging sound. When the emperor lifted his hand from his mouth, it was covered in purple liquid. Haggar's smile disappeared while Zarkon grunted in anger.

"Lord Zarkon, it seems you are in need of another infusion, I will prepare the druids." Before Haggar could leave, Zarkon spoke again, this time his voice slightly more raspy.

"Haggar, my time in this world is not infinite unless our plans succeed. You will attend to the reinforcements and protect the flare. I will remain here with the druids until I am fit to join you."

"As you wish sire." Haggar replied, bowing. She strode towards the door, her cloak swishing like a shadow behind her.

"Haggar." She stopped, barely turning her head. "Do not fail me, I have waited thousands of years for this, the well's power _will_ be mine." He said slowly, his words cutting through the tense air like sharpened razors.

"Yes sir, I will not fail." With that, she disappeared in a whisp of black smoke.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Shiro's eyes cracked open as he rejoined the world of the concious.

" _Ugh, what time is it?_ " He questioned to himself. The man furrowed his brow upon realizing he was leaning against the wall. Then, the memories of last night soon came back to him. With a huff , he tried to rub a bad crick in his neck, but stopped when his fingers brushed against hair that obviously wasn't his. Shiro turned his head and his eyes widened upon taking in the sleeping girl next to him. Nara was leaning against his human arm, both her arms loosely wrapped around it. She rose and fell slowly, her breath glancing off Shiro's shoulder. A blush of realization and slight embarrassment threaded over his face. He internally swore when his earlier movement caused the girl to begin to stir. Shiro's face went even pinker as Nara blinked slowly, retaining a completely peaceful and (though Shiro would never admit aloud) honestly quite cute expression. Her head rose and she looked around until hazel eyes locked with his own, causing her to freeze. A moment of silence passed between them both.

" _This isn't a big deal... She just slept in my arms... All night long... Yea, not a big deal at aalll."_ He tried to convince himself.

"Well good morning to you too." Shiro chuckled softly to break the uncomfortable silence.

"Ah uhm ah I-I ah." She stammered, pointing between Shiro and the bed in a frantic way, letting go of his arm and scooting away towards the bed. "I ah um sorry, it's just, I woke up in the middle of the night and it was cold and you looked freezing and I kind of just fell asleep there..." She tried to explain. Shiro smiled at the girl's frantic explanation, honestly quite relieved she hadn't noticed how embarrassed he really was. He got up and stretched with a crick and clack of his metal arm as Nara continued to bable on.

"Nara." He said, finally stopping her. Shiro held out a hand to help her up. "Cmon, lets go get some breakfast." He said, as if everything that happened in the past twelve hours was completely natural. Nara looked at him in a confused way for a moment before sighing in defeat. She nodded, taking his hand and followed him out into the hallway, praying that her red hot face would cool quickly just as much as he did.

. . . . . . . . . . .

After getting some food from the kitchen, Nara and Shiro walked to the main dining hall. Once there, they found everyone minus Hunk already eating. Everyones eyes travelled from their respective conversations  to the two newcomers.

"Ah, good morning you two, I hope you both slept well." Allura beamed innocently. Nara felt her cheeks heat up again as she took a seat next to Pidge, Shiro sitting across from them by Lance and Keith. She glanced at the green paladin, remembering her outburst from last night. The girl's face remained unreadable, which slightly frustrated her. With a breath of defeat, she began to poke at her food goo.

"Ooh yea I bet they both slept great." Lance suddenly piped up in a mocking voice. Nara's eyes flew like a bullet from her food to the blue paladin, who had a mischevious smile plastered on his face. Shiro froze across from her mid-chew as well while Allura looked towards the blue paladin with a confused expression.

"Lance, what the hell are you talking about?" Keith asked in exasperation.

"Why don't you ask Pidge, or better our good leader and his beautiful compatriot?" Lance replied in a joking tone. Allura looked from Pidge to Nara and then to Shiro.

"Pidge, Shiro, Nara, what is he talking about?" She questioned. Pidge looked up from her food goo as if she had been trying to avoid conversation but failed miserably.

"Bu ah um well last night uhm, it's just Shiro and Nara were a little loud..." The girl faltered realizing what her words implied. Allura, Coran, and Keith's eyes seemed to bug out all at once, their questioning gazes darting between Nara and Shiro who were both matching cherries now.

" _Oh my god_ " Nara though, placing her forehead in her hand, dropping her fork with a clang. Putting down his own fork a little forcibly, Shiro's patience rose to a breaking point.

"Alright that's enough. Yes, Nara did stay in my quarters last night but no we did not participate in anything considered... innapropriate." He said authoritatively. Nara's face felt like it was on fire.

" _He literally could not have said that in any worse of a way..._ " She thought miserably. Continuing his previous point in a bit softer tone, Shiro said, "Pidge, I'm sorry our conversation kept you awake, it won't happen again." Pidge nodded sheepishly, probably wishing she could invent an invisability device right about now. Lance looked like he wanted to ask more questions but Allura had already changed the subject.

" _Anyways_ in other news from, well... THAT, Hunk should be waking up this morning and we should also be arriving at Eviscia by tonight. This means that today we should come up with our plan moving forward." She concluded. Nara silently prayed thanks to the princess for changing the topic.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

The group gathered in front of the pod while Coran tapped away at the center console of the med bay. Hunk slumbered peacefully in the pod, the skin showing through the ripped paladin under-suit now only a slight pink.

" _That's amazing..._ " Nara thought in wonder, remembering the bloody wound caused only yesterday.

"So, how much longer?" Lance questioned in an impatient tone.

"Should be a couple more ticks!" Coran piped up. Nara furrowed her brow.

"What's a tick?" She questioned.

"It's like a second." Pidge answered.

"Well it's a bit longer than a second." Shiro corrected.

"How much longer is it than a second?" Nara questioned further.

"Oh god not this argument again." Keith interjected, holding his brow with two fingers. Before anyone could say anything else, a swishhhhh fell over the room, causing Keith and Lance to stand ready. The glass holding Hunk soon dissipated into a blur of magical sparks, and he fell into Keith and Lances arms.

"Uh, wah, where am I?" Hunk said disorientedly.

"Haha Hunk you big lug you're alright!" Lance exclaimed, wrapping his arms around the yellow paladin.

"Oh god Lance I'm glad to see ya but-" He made a motion with his hand and lurched forward as if he were going to throw up. Everyone jumped back to dodge the upchuck that thankfully never came.

"It's great to see you're okay Hunk, can you walk?" Allura questioned. Hunk looked to the floor, stepping away from Keith's support.

"Ah, I think so." Nara smiled as Hunk stood straight up.

" _Thank goodness he's alright._ "

As if Shiro were reading the girl's thoughts, he placed a hand on her shoulder. Nara met his understanding smile with a warm one of her own.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

A few hours later, everyone suited up and gathered in the bridge. The Paladin's sat in their respective chairs while Nara stood next to Allura at the center dias.  In front of them, Coran pulled up the astral map and zoomed in, a purple dot appearing between them and the planet that was their destination.

"We are close to the planet now, but we shouldn't approach it from closer than behind one of it's moons." Coran stated. He zoomed in on the smallest of Eviscia's three moons.

"This moon's orbit is nearest to the planet but far enough out of the enemy's radar range, giving us plenty of room to hide"

Allura nodded at Coran's observation.

"This planet, it's quite... interesting to say in the least, there's a massive source of energy eminating from one concentrated spot on it's surface." She noted.

"Maybe that's what the Galra are after?" Keith questioned.

"Hmm possibly... I've never seen quintessence behaving like this. Coran, have you?" Allura questioned in wonder. She zoomed in on a particularly bright spot on the planet's surface while Coran shook his head.

"It's honestly quite astounding to me as well princess, and take a look at this." With a flick of his hand, two looping strands of particles were enlarged over Coran's head. The top strand was a colored teal mass of swirling particles while the bottom a sky blue.

"What is this Coran?" Nara questioned in awe.

"The teal strand is the color of this planet's quintessence. Yet the bottom strand, the energy coming from the flare, is a different color. Therefore this means that this anomoly is coming from a seperate energy source than the planet itself." He explained.

"No wonder the Galra are after it, can you tell where the source is?" Allura questioned. Coran shook his head.

"No, the frequency just... Ends in a crater on the planet's surface. Yet, I seem to be picking up radiation in the form of a sphere. It seems the Galrans have put a force field around it." Allura brought a hand up to her chin.

"We should investigate this anomoly. For all we know if they're protecting it so well, it could become an asset towards defeating the Galra." Keith stood from his seat, furrowing his brow.

"How will we even get close to it? I mean take a look at this the place is heavily guarded-" Keith zoomed in on two Galran battlecruisers currently landed on the operations runway. "-And the facility is surrounded by jungle, we don't have a lot of landing room anywhere, and thats all on top of a force field around this... Thing."

"Well maybe we don't have to land on the surface." Allura pondered out loud.

"Princess, what do you mean?" Shiro questioned while standing up.

"What I mean is that this planet may be covered in jungles and massive vegetation, but the castle scans of the surface are picking up many cavern entrances. Therefore there must be a cave somewhere we could follow to the anomoly's location." She replied.

"Just like on the balmera!" Hunk exclaimed. Allura nodded her head while Nara put her hands on her hips.

"Now, what about the force field?"

"We could sneak in and take out their power generator?" Pidge piped up. Everyone looked at the bright girl and then around at eachother, smiles forming on the groups faces. A plan was finally coming to frutition.

.     .     .     .     .     .

The paladins and Nara gathered in front of Shiro behind the center dais, Allura standing to his left.

"Alright paladins, here is the plan." The princess zoomed in on a holographic map of the facility, where it was situated on a foundation of gridded, barren rock. The open oval area was surrounded by thick jungle vegetation, trees reaching hundreds of feet higher than any on Earth. Allura shifted the map to the left, where a small break in the vegetation was located.

"About half a mile from here there seems to be a cave system entrance large enough for the lions to enter. From there, the castles scanners can map out the bare minimum of how far down the caves go." She zoomed in on the cave and moved the image back towards the Galran base.

"Since there is no way to enter the facility from the surface without being seen, Keith, Nara, Pidge, and Lance will enter the cave and follow it back towards here, near an underground section of the base. From there they will create a makeshift entrance hopefully without being caught." Where Allura pointed showed that the cave looped by an outer wall below the base. Any lower from that section was blurred into nonexistence due to the castle scanners range not being able to reach far enough underground.

"You will take the red, blue, and green lions and hide them below the opening of the large cavern. They will be well hidden by the overhanging foliage-"

Lance raised his hand. "Ah yea and how exactly will we get the lions down there without being seen from above?" He questioned skeptically. Allura smirked and moved the holomap far out of the planet's atmosphere. It rested on the image of the mining frigate they had been following for the past week.

"This ship will be docking on the planet within the hour. You will hide below the ship's underbelly near the thrusters. Once its close to the surface, you will push off towards the surface in the cover of the thrusters smoke."

An "Oh" formed on Lances face, causing Keith to chuckle lightly. Allura continued the plan from there.

"Once you four are inside, you will use blip tech to give Coran a map of the halls. Next, he will lead you to the main shield power generators. It will be your jobs to take them out." Shiro nodded at the princesses explanation and continued the rest of their plot for her.

"Hunk, you're with Allura and I, we will be landing in a cavern about two miles west of the facility. Once you four have the shield down we will follow the caves to the anomaly that the Galra are guarding. Once this happens it's your guys job to get out of there as fast as you can since the guards will probably be on high alert. From there, us three will investigate this anomalys power source. Any questions?"

"Yea is there time for a snack right about now?"

Shiro sighed holding his brow while the team chuckled.

"Ok, any relevant questions?"

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Nara and the other paladins (except Shiro since his lion could be reached by the control room) headed towards their respective hangars. Before Keith and Lance split, Lance stopped beside him.

"See you on the surface mullet." He said with a smile. Keith nodded, responding with a grin of his own. Nara looked back and forth between the two before glancing at Pidge, who only shrugged. From there she followed Keith to his hangar. Thankfully Nara knew what to expect on the ride this time, and grabbed the zipline with one hand while Keith did the same. Yet, to both their dismay, she had to ride in his lap in the speeder. They ignored this fact as much as possible and, once reaching the cockpit, Nara hopped off the boy as fast as she could, almost hitting her head on the low ceiling of the red lion.

"Sorry about that, red's smaller than the other lions, but she's a lot smoother of a ride than anything Lance could provide." He said in a suprisingly genuine apologetic tone. He flipped a switch and the lights of the dashboard came online.

"Heh, it's alright." Nara chuckled in reply. Keith flew the lion out of the hangar with ease, although not with as much skill as Shiro she noted. He quickly joined formation with the others towards the looming planet. Then, Coran's face suddenly appeared on a holograph to Keith and Nara's left.

"Alright guys I have successfully jammed the Galran ship's close range radar. You should be able to fly to the underbelly of the ship without being detected." He stated.

"You heard him team, lets go!" Shiro exclaimed. A resouding yea flared over the coms. The lions flew under the large frigates thrusters. Nara watched out the long as the black lion latch it's claws into the metal surface to the right of their position. A small pang of jealousy towards Allura worked it's way up her gut. She really did enjoy the princesses company and respect her, but Nara found herself wishing _she_ could be onboard with the black paladin.

" _Not now, focus on the mission._ " She chastised to herself. Once the frigate had broken through the atmosphere, smoke began to billow from it's thrusters.

"Okay Hunk, let's go. Good luck guys, see you on the other side." Shiro said. The black and yellow lions disconnected from the bottom of the frigate and flew out of sight.

"We should be ready to go soon too, our destination is coming up fast." Pidge stated.

"Yea I see it." Keith said, glancing at the gridded map to his right. A red blip was getting bigger the closer to the planet the frigate flew.

"Alright guys in three... Two... One... Detach!" Lance exclaimed. The lions let go simultaneously and flew backwards into the billowing smoke. One by one, they flew down into the cavern, Keith bringing up the rear. Nara grunted and stumbled as the sides of the red lion hit some brush. She glanced outward, watching the cave's entrance open up into a large dome, giving plenty of room for the lions to land, just as Allura had said. Pidge whistled a long, low note as she hopped out of her lion's open maw.

"Yeeesh this place is huge." Nara nodded in agreement. The cave they needed to follow was too small for their speeders, so the group was forced to walk.

"Sure is dark down here..." Nara thought aloud. Suddenly, Keith stumbled on a hidden puddle in the tunnels floor, causing Lance to chuckle hysterically. Nara glanced at the paladin with an annoyed look on her face, causing Lance to quickly shut up.

"Here, I got this." Pidge said, holding up her beyard. Upon it's activation, a warm green glow flooded the tunnel. They forged on for awhile until less than ten minutes later, Lance groaned outwardly.

"Uuugh are we close yet?" Pidge pulled up a holomap on her forearm.

"Yep, it's right around this bend." She stated. The tunnel curved to the left suddenly, cutting to an abrupt stop. The end was cut off by metal plating stretching the width of the cave.

"And here we are." Nara announced. Pidge took out the device meant to scan the area, a white, rounded piece of alien machinery that was shaped like a. potato. Upon activation, the device opened up into a blue and white tripod with a bright light at it's peak.

"Coran, do you copy?" Pidge said into the transceiver of her helmet.

"Loud and clear Pidge, im connected to the reciever, there are currently no Galran patrols near your location, you are clear to open the wall." The mustachioed man answered.

"Here, hold this" Pidge said while placing the white potato in Nara's hands. She then turned and slowly inserted her beyard into the metal of the wall. Keith came up behind her, activated his sword, and dug it in about a foot away from Pidges beyard.

"This'll go faster if I help." He explained. Once they had the wall open, the carved peice clattered to the ground, and Keith and Pidge peered inside. The halls were designed like any other Galran facility with pillars jutting out from the walls along the corridor. To their right was a set of stairs situated about ten feet away while at their left the hall appeared to make an intersection.

"Alright Coran, lead the way." Pidge whispered into her helmet.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

"Now, take the next left." Coran instructed. He had led the group through an increasingly confusing set of corridors and doorways. Twice they had almost been caught by patrols, but made it behind a pillar or doorway in time.

"Isn't this supposed to be a mining operation?" Keith wondered aloud.

Lance huffed next to him "Yea, what about it?"

"Well, where are all the workers? All we've seen so far are a couple guard patrols don't you guys think that's wierd?"

"I think I can help with that! Pidge, pull up your map." Pidge did as Coran instructed and squinted at the holomap. Nara peered over the girl's shoulder to get a good look.

"Look down two floors below your current position." Coran commanded. Pidge and Nara both gasped, causing Keith and Lance to push and get a look at what was so suprising. On the map there was a huge cluster of thermal images in what appeared to be a large canyon of a hall.

"Are those the natives?" Pidge questioned.

"Yes, it seems the Galrans have put them all in cell blocks. But the real question is why?" Coran replied. Nara held a hand to her chin.

"I don't know why but I do know this. We can't just leave them there, what if something goes wrong and we're forced to blow the facility? We have to free them." Pidge nodded in agreement while Keith furrowed his brow.

"You sure about this? I feel like somethings not right." Lance shook his head next to Keith.

"I for one agree with commander hot-stuff- (a comment that earned Lance a glare from an extremely annoyed Nara) - we can't just leave innocent lives down there." Keith wanted to argue further but bit his tongue, knowing it would be just a waste of time. Instead he replied with "Fine, how will we split up then."

"I'll take Lance, Pidge, you go with Keith, he may need your expertise to free the prisoners."

Suddenly, clanking footsteps began to echo to the groups left.

"Guys whatever the plan is you have to move now!" Coran yelled. Nara and Lance sprinted down an adjacent corridor while Keith and Pidge basically dove down a flight of stairs.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

"There's the cavern." Allura pointed out. Shiro gracefully landed the black lion past overhanging foliage within the long, narrow cavern. Hunk, not quite as ceremoniously as Shiro, awkwardly landed the yellow lion on a ledge about ten feet up. The yellow paladin clamored out of the maw of his lion only to slip unceremoniously and fall into a shallow pool of water.

"Wha WHAAG!"

Shiro and Allura ran up beside the pool.

"Hunk, are you alright?" Allura asked in a concerned tone. Hunk quickly popped back onto his feet and adjusted the back of his helmet.

"Yep I'm good, no need to retell what just happened, like, ever again, please."

After Hunk's little slip, the three of them walked down the canvern for quite some time.

"Allura, how close are we?" Shiro questioned. Allura pulled up her holomap.

"We are a little less than a mile away from target."

Hunk wimpered next to them.

"Ah man, can we at least get a little light? Its so dark in here!" Shiro complied to Hunk's request by activating his hand.

"Thank you Shir- aahh WAAH." Hunks foot made a clang before the yellow paladin fell to the ground again. Shiro shined his hand towards where Hunk stumbled and sucked in a gasp, back stepping away. On the floor was a bloodied Galran soldier, something Shiro could regrettably recognize anywhere. Purple mixed with water around the body on the floor like oil would. Hunk crawled away with a squeak while Allura held her hand up to her mouth in disgust. Throwing away his previous shock, Shiro peered closer at the deformed body. There were lash marks across the chestpiece.

"Whatever did this did it recently..." He thought aloud. Allura nodded next to him.

"But the question is... What did it?" The three of them froze as a ticking sound began to echo off the cave walls.

. . . . . . . . . . .

Thrace pulled up the camera shot of the landing platform in the central command of the facility.

"Galran vessel 33275 you are clear to land." He commanded. Thrace watched with little interest as the large frigate slowly land on the massive platform. Then, the door behind him wooshed open. He turned as Haggar strode in, earning bows from the other Galrans at seperate consols.

"Haggar, it's a pleasure as always." Thrace said with a slight bow of his own. The witches face remained complacent with a look of pure evil.

"Tell your men to leave us." She hissed. Thrace frowned momentarily before he waved his right hand upward. The Galrans filtered out of the room one by one at the command.

"Is... Something the matter?" Thrace questioned slowly. He kept his arms crossed behind his back as the witch strode past him, gazing at the holoscreen filled with Galran letters.

"I feel something stirring. There is dark quintessence on the move, outside the facility. But that is not all of it... There is more." Commander Thrace raised an eyebrow as the demon continued. "A greater power of the dark essence stirrs beneath us..." She murmured as if she were talking to herself and not the commander. She suddenly turned sharply towards him, her cloak fluttering at the quick movement. "Tell your men to be on high alert, there are intruders within these walls, we must protect the flare. Lord Zarkon is on his way."

Thrace furrowed his brow.

" _The paladins?..._ " He wondered. He turned towards the main console and pressed a button.

"All men are to remain on high alert, I repeat, remain on high alert and on the lookout for intruders." He commanded. Satisfied and no longer requiring anything from the general, Haggar stepped out of the door, dark whisps following in her wake. Thrace lowered his head in deep thought for a moment.

" _If they are here... They don't know Zarkon is on the way, but... Could they know about Foryan? That's impossible... No they will ruin the plan if she is caught because of their timing!_ "

He turned towards the Galrans re- entering the command center, pointed to one of them in a more decorated plating.

"You are in charge until I return, understood?"

. . . . . . . . . .

Nara swore under her breath as the commanders announcement sounded through the walls.

"Shit... Do you think they found the others?" She questioned as her and Lance jogged down the hall.

"Hah, I don't, ah, think so... Wouldn't they, hah, have said there were _for sure_ intruders if they caught us?" Lance huffed. Nara was suprised at the usually foolish boy's assumption.

"I have everyone's locations here, there doesn't seem to be any large masses of enemies near anyone, therefore the announcement must have been made for another reason." Coran reasoned over the intercoms.

"Ok, good to know, which way next Coran?" Nara asked.

"You and Lance are very close, it's the door on the next left, but beware, for there are Galran soldiers nearby and within the generator room" Coran warned. Lance readied his beyard, the gun materializing in his hands while Nara nodded, and peered around the corner they were behind. She saw a doorway with guards around it.

"Five guards, I'll charge the two on the left, you take the right and lay some cover fire." She directed. Lance gave her a dorky thumbs up.

"Alright, three, two, one... NOW."

She sprinted around the corner in a flash. The bots were caught off guard in surprise, but quicky recovered. The fastest of them all raised his weapon but he suddenly dropped in a pile of sparks as a blue blast hit him. Nara smirked and lept into the air. Her foot connected with the bot's head and made a satisfying crunch as it caved in. She rolled forward and came to a stop with the remaining bots behind her. Time seemed to slow to a standstill as she willed her back to comply with her commands. The quintessence surged forth, and she turned sharply extending her left arm out. The plates flew forward and tore holes in two more of the guards. She brought her hand back for a final strike, but Lance had already gotten to it. Time seemed to return to normal as the adrenaline rush inside the girl slowed. Lance sprinted towards her and came to a stop in front of the door.

"Damn that's awesome." Lance chuckled under his breath. Nara sighed and pressed a finger to her helmet.

"Alright Coran, we've secured the entrance, how many are inside?"

"Okay you two, the generator room opens into a long rectangular platform. There are bolts of energy on either side so watch out for those, for any unwelcome disturbances will cause them to surge. At the end of the platform is the generator itself, get to the main console. There are two guards just inside while several more are patrolling along the platform." He informed. Lance and Nara nodded to each other in understanding. The blue paladin pressed a broken hand to the door while Nara got into ready stance, her blood beginning to boil and she felt the quintessence surge within her. She felt icy sharp and her vision was completely clear of color.

" _Here we go."_

The door opened with a swoosh and Nara barrel rolled forward. She stopped in a crouched position and crossed her arms across both sides of her body. The quintessional wings sliced outward, cutting two guards in half. She then curved her arms towards her chest, pulling the violet over her in a wave. It came to a stop in the form of a shield, surrounding the girl.

"Lance go! I've got the cover!" She exclaimed. Lance sprinted forward and crouched behind her shield.

" _It's...smaller than usual..._ " She noticed uneasily. Her thoughts were interrupted by focus on the shield as it began to absorb blasterfire. The bolts slowed and eventually stopped altogether as Lances assaults met their marks. She opened her eyes and sighed in relief, resting her arms at her sides. The quintessence and plates slid back into her as she stood.

"Booyea!! Now that's how it's done!" Lance exclaimed striking a funny pose and then moving into the moonwalk. Nara smirked at the dance, causing Lance to smile confidently.

"Ahh ya like that commander hotstuff?" He asked in a cocky tone. Nara's smile was immediatly replaced by an annoyed frown.

"Cmon, and stop calling me that." She commanded. Shrugging his shoulders, Lance followed the angry lady to the center console of the large generator.

. . . . . . . . . .

"Uuuuhhhh guys whatever that is sounds like it's getting closer!" Hunk exclaimed. Allura gazed down at the holomap.

"Somethings heading towards us from the direction we're supposed to be going in."

She pointed to an infrared mass getting ever closer to their position. Shiro took up a defensive stance in front of Allura and Hunk readied his cannon. The ticking sound became more and more hurried. Sweat trickled down Shiro's brow as he readied himself for attack. He heard a clicking sound as Hunk prepared to open fire. A gasp echoed through the cave and a young male voice resounded.

"WAAAIT wait wait wait, for the gods of glizarb's sake _please_ don't hurt me!"

Allura, Shiro, and Hunk gave eachother confused looks as the creature revealed itself. The voice came from a tall, four legged spider like alien, towering about three feet over even Shiro, and retaining an extremely slender green body. The abdomen formed a torso where it met the alien's front two legs. The creatures arms extended into long razors with two skinny knobs at their ends for fingers. It's head was shaped like a diamond, both sides of it's face lined with three glittering topaz orbs. The thing's face was scrunched with a worried expression.

Hunk raised an eyebrow. "It's eeeh, a preying mantis..." He inferred aloud.

"You must be a native!" Allura claimed, stepping around Shiro. The creature nodded.

"M-my name is Vygar of the Evenchar tribe. Our people were put under the Galran reign many many moons ago."

"How did you escape? That is, if you're currently free." Shiro questioned. Vygar looked down to the floor of the cave.

"It was not of my doing. Our people mine these tunnels that run throughout our planet for the Galrans you see, since our eyesight in the dark is so accomplished. Yet, suddenly our oppressors forced my tribe to the surface. I was almost a days travel underground, and was escorted back to the surface." His face was completely somber, but perked up as he continued. "Over many many ticks ago, my guards suddenly fell to the floor, dead. The attacker sliced my restraints and disappeared that way without saying a word." He pointed to the tunnel with an extended claw where the quickest way to the flare was. Shiro noticed that the skin at where his joints connected on his claw-arms were bruised a rusty color.

" _At least we know he's telling the truth..._ " Shiro figured. Vygar turned his attention back to Allura and the two paladins.

"Who exactly are you?" He questioned. Allura smiled in response.

"I am princess Allura of Altaea, and these are two of the paladins of Voltron. We came here with intent to investigate the strange quintessional burst currently surging from your planet and find out what it's source is. " She explained. Vygars many eyes seemed to bug out (no pun intended) of his oblong skull.

"We have heard of you, there are whispers among the guards about Voltron! It sounds like quite a force to be reckoned with! As for this... Quintessional burst... I have no reckon of what you mean. Yet, what you speak of may be why my people were called to the surface." He figured. Allura nodded in agreement.

"We will try to help your people in any way we can, but for now we ask you to get as far away from here as possible."

Vygar saluted the group and crawled around them on the side of the wall.

"Thank you again... And please... Help my people." With that he scuttled into the darkness. Shiro looked to the princess with a wrinkled brow.

"He said that someone freed him, but who, and were they responsible for that dead guard?"

Hunk shrugged. "Well maybe there was more than one of them freed?" Allura brought a hand to her chin.

"Hmm, no matter who it may be, we should push forward, and should also contact Coran to see if he can find the whereabouts of the rest of his tribe." Hunk and Shiro nodded in agreement.

. . . . . . . . . .

Coran explained how Keith and Pidge were already on their way to free the prisoners as Allura and the two paladins continued down the cavern.

"What?! But they are straying from the plan, they could be in greater danger!" She exclaimed. Shiro brought a hand up to his helmet transceiver.

"Keith, Pidge do you copy?" His question was met with thick static. Regardless, he tried again.

"Nara, Lance, Keith, Pidge... Do any of you copy?" More static filled the line.

"I can't get ahold of them." He said shaking his head. Coran's voice then came online.

"It may be the signal strength of the helmets. The castle can pick up greater frequencies than the hemets can, therefore all of you can communicate with me, but not eachother."

"Well that's not good." Hunk said while stating the obvious. Allura put a hand to her helmet in annoyance.

"No, it is not. Coran, please tell the other to be careful."

Shiro smiled. "Don't worry, they're partnered up, im sure they will be fine princess." Yet, the black paladin found that his reassurance was more for himself if anything.

. . . . . . . . . .

Keith and Pidge stepped around the remains of the guards they had just destroyed and sprinted through the hallway onto what appeared to be a skyway.

"Keith look!" Pidge exclaimed, pointing out the long window. The enclosed bridge was suspended in the middle of an extremely large cell block. Keith peered up and then down the canyon of bars.

"There could be almost fifty rows of cells, and who knows how many across, theres no way we could free them one by one." He assumed. A grin crossed Pidge's face, her glasses glinting brightly.

"Yea but I bet if we get up _there_ , I could hack the prisons database and free them all at once." She said slightly maniacally. A smirk crossed Keith's face as he saw where Pidge was talking about. At the top of the left wall of cells was what seemed like a overlook control room.

"Alright, Coran could you show us the way to that control center?"

. . . . . . . . . .

Keith stabbed his sword into the chest of the bot with one final swoosh. It had a seizure before slumping into inactivity.

"Okay Keith, ready?" Pidge whispered, ready to open the door. Keith nodded, and the door opened with a swoosh. The red paladin sprinted in, his eyes flying right and left in a frenzy, yet, to his and Pidges suprise, there was only one guard. He was a live Galran rather than a bot. The guard turned with a start.

"Wah, who are-" His question was cutt off as Keith lept into the air and drop kicked the Galran in the face. His head hit the consol with a loud crack of his helmet before his unconcious body fell to the floor.

"Well that's one way to do it." Pidge muttured before plugging in a wire from her arm, creating an uplink with the console. An icon of Pidges face with swirls in her glasses overshadowed the Galran writing on the holoscreen. She grunted in annoyance. "There's a lot of coding here, this'll take awhile." Keith swore under his breath.

"We don't have a lot of time, just hurry..." His demand was cut short as the door whooshed open behind them. Keith lept to his feet from where he had been kneeling and sprinted towards the Galran without a second thought. He was older, with greying around a purple beard and wrinkles lining his cheekbones. His armor was more decorated than the usual Galran attire. Keith swung wide in an attempt to slice at the intruder. Yet, with lightning-fast reflexes, the Galran pulled out a long curved knife and stopped Keith's assault mid swing. Metal clanged together in a swish of sparks as Keith and the Galran ended up in a deadlock.

"Pidge, keep going, I'll take care of this-" He glanced to Pidge and back to the newcomer. His eyes fell upon the blade and the red paladin sucked in a gasp. With a heavy weight crashing in his chest, Keith swung his sword to break the deadlock and took two steps back.

" _His blade... Those markings..._ "

The Galran straightened, the long knife ready in his palm. There was a line of strange markings running up the blade, ones all too familiar to the paladin each time he takes gentle care of his most prized possession.

"Paladin please, I am not your enemy, you are in grave danger here and must leave this place, you are interrupting events here that must unfold!" The Galran said almost pleadingly. Keith half ignored him, his focus still on the knife.

" _They're the same as on mine.._."

"That knife, where did you get that knife." He demanded in a seething tone. The Galran's eyes widened slightly.

"Why... Do you ask."

"That isn't any of your business, now ANSWER ME." Pidge turned her head in confusion at Keith's exclamation to watch the argument unfolding before her. The Galran blinked at Keith before narrowing his wide yellow eyes.

"I created it, why would you..." He paused.

All of a sudden, Commander Thrace's eyes widened, the eclipse of those yellow orbs opening to mimick bright suns.

"That's impossible, you can't be... Kefkon... " He paused for another moment.

"What is your name paladin?"

"Keith" He spat out, his blade still ready to strike.

"Keith... That must be what she named you..." He muttured. Keith's brow furrowed.

"What the hell are you talking about." Suddenly, the communicator on Thrace's arm came to life.

"Commander Thrace, we have found one of the paladins of Voltron and another intruder, they are located in the generator room..." Pidge and Keith watched with confused expressions as Thrace reached an arm over and switched the comm off. He strode forward, brushing past the red paladin as if the ealier conversation hadn't happened.

"We must make haste, here, this will help." Thrace pressed a palm to the console, a violet light shining around it. One by one, the cells began to open. Thrace barely flinched as the edge of Keith's blade brushed his neck.

"It seems ineffective to kill someone if you want information from them." He stated calmly.

"Keith stop it! He's helping us." Pidge demanded, retracting her uplink cable. Keith ignored the green paladin.

"What do you mean that's what she named me?" He seethed slowly. Thrace turned to face him.

"You're an orphan, are you not?" Keith's brow furrowed and he nodded. Thrace shook his head and looked to the ground somberly.

"If I am correct... you own a knife similar to this one." Keith's jaw dropped and he stumbled back, his beyard clattering to the ground. The sparks rose slowly, illuminating Thrace's figure in the red paladin's slurring vision.

" _No...impossible_ " His thoughts wimpered.

"You're mother gave you that knife."

" _Stop.._."

Thrace continued to speak at a pace that seemed to mock the laws of time themselves. His gaze lingered on the knife in his hand.

"Paladin Keith... Kefkon... I do not know how to explain, but I believe you are possibly.... my son."


	13. Too Late

Pidge gazed in complete awe between the Galran and and the red paladin, who was now completely rendered catatonic. "That's... Impossible, you two are different species! You're lying!" She exclaimed in a furious tone. Thrace shook his head, a small act of denial at the girl's words.

"I know it seems improbable but I implore you to believeit is the truth. Kefkon... Keith, my name is Thrace, and I can give an explanation- Footsteps and shouts began to echo down the hallway. Thrace paused with a frustrated expression plastering his face, and turned to look into the cell bay, where the Evescians were crawling out of the facility through the ventilation. "-but now is not the time."

Keith stood frozen, not knowing what to do. His head spun with a million questions as if his brain weren't an amazing organ but just a simple ball whirling around in his skull.

" _He's lying... but the knife? And how does he know about me being an orphan? It's impossible... I'm human... Right?"_

Memories dug so deep into the depths of Keith's very soul began to swirl out of the pit of his darkest thoughts. His hand, when it had turned purple during his battle with the druid just over a month ago. And the fight... The fight with Zarkon...

" _You fight like a Galran_." a malicious voice whispered in his mind, a second consciousness twisting his reality.

"No... It's impossible..." He whimpered. All of a sudden, a loud CRACK sounded through the air, and his supposed father Thrace fell in an unconcious heap. Keith looked to see Pidge standing behind where the commander had just stood, her beyard held up menacingly in her hand.

"Why did you do that?!" He exclaimed in anger. Keith needed answers, his thoughts literally  _begged_ for them, how some alien seemed to know more about the paladin's past than even he did.

"Because he's filling your head with lies and we need to focus!" Pidge reasoned. The guards voices from before soon grew louder. "Cmon we have to go now!" Suddenly, Coran's voice crackled online.

"Paladins, for a moment I lost connection, but you must leave now, the guards are on high alert and have found Nara and Lance!"

Pidge took Keith's hand and led him out into the hallway. Once they were crossing the bridge, blasterfire began to follow. Keith's vision was going in and out of blurriness as he sprinted with the green paladin.

" _Am I... A Galran?..._ "

.     .     .     .     .     .      .    .     .     .     .     .

_A bit earlier..._

Nara swore as if she were an angry sailor, slamming her hand down on the console as the screen blipped red again.

" _Man I really should have taken Pidge..._ " She glanced at Lance, who had his beyard pointed out the door.

"Coran, for the last freaking time, I DON'T understand Galran writing!" She seethed, turning back to the screen. He had attempted to walk her through a forced shutdown proccess, but she kept getting the strange lettering mixed up. A sigh of impatience and annoyance sounded over the other side of her comm.

"Well slamming on it sure won't work! Just try again!" He commanded.

"Uuuh Nara, we may not have time for that!" Lance warned from behind. Nara turned and activated her quintessence as fast as she possibly could, just in time for a bolt to be absorbed inches from her face. Lance dove behind her, putting away his small arm shield.

"What now?!"

Nara looked from the Galrans to the generator. She shook her head, and an idea, one that could of _course_ possibly kill them both, came to mind.

"Coran, how dangerous would it be to shoot the generator?"

"Extremely! You both are near energy coils that would burst and lash out if you broke their source of stability!" 

Nara swore again, watching with slight trepidation as more soldiers seemed to pool into the other side of the room.

" _We'll have to take that chance_." "

Lance! Shoot the generator, it's the only option!" She yelled. Lance looked at her in utter disbelief.

"You heard Coran, if we do that, we might get fried!" He replied, turning to shoot down another guard.

"I can block the coils, we just have to move fast!" She reasoned, praying the paladin would agree. Lance looked worriedly from the generator to the dozen or so coils lining the walkway before shaking his head.

"Alright, but if I become a cooked chicken leg Nara you owe me a date!" He exclaimed.

"Whatever just do it!" Lance turned again and shot the generators lining the wall. Blue bolts met with metal, filling the air with a harsh acrid smell as the device burned, and began to spark like no tomorrow.

"RUN!"

Nara lifted her shield with a flick of a wrist and her and Lance sprinted forward. The coils around them began to snap bolts of plasma outward, one catching three of the guards, sending them flying over the edge of the walkway in crisp heaps. Nara grunted as one bolt lashed against the shield with battering force. She shifted it over their heads as another flash took out the last of their enemies.

" _Almost there, almost there!_ " Her eyes widened as Lance passed the final coil of bright violet light.

"LANCE LOOK OUT!" Nara yelled, diving forward. Her quintessional shield folded back into wings and gave her a flying boost forward. She wrapped her arms around the boy's waist mid air and sent them flying into the hallway, just in time to miss a lightning bolt. Nara, flinging her left arm to the side, quickly threw a plate in a bright string of light into the door controls, causing the sliding door to woosh closed just before a large, shaky explosion lit up the other side. Nara collapsed against the wall, completely out of breath.

"Are, hah, youah, alrighht?" She asked shakily, lazily turning her head towards Lance, who was also panting on the ground.

"Never betterrr" He chuckled, holding a shaky thumbs up. She extended her hand outward and helped the paladin up, the quintessence sliding back into place behind her with a cool fizzle.

"Nara, oh quiznak you are worse than Allura! You both could have been killed!" Coran exclaimed indignantly.

"Well at least the generators down right?" She reasoned right back, Coran grumbling in agreement over the line and Nara barely missed a bit more about an idiotic young species or something like that. Before Lance or Nara could say anything else, the clattering of metal feet filled their ears.

"Run." They both said simultaneously, sprinting in the opposite direction. 

     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .    .  

Coran managed to direct Nara and Lance on a path where they eventually met up with Keith and Pidge. Pidge almost seemed to be pulling Keith along but due to the blasterfire overhead, nobody really questioned it.

"Okay we're close to the hole!" Pidge yelled. They turned another corner and saw the opening near the staircase they had seen coming in. Pidge and Keith were about ten feet in front of Nara and Lance and just about dove through the hole upon reaching it.

"Cmon cmon!" Nara yelled to Lance behind her as she stopped, ready to dive through the hole herself. She faltered when suddenly, a bolt of lightning struck the ceiling above it. Rocks came tumbling down, covering the entrance.

"Pidge, Keith!" They both shrieked. Without warning, the guards plasma bolts had stopped firing behind them. Nara and Lance turned towards where the lightning blast had come from and froze. There, slowly striding down the hall, was the fruit of Nara's nightmares. Darkness clung to her like an old friend, her robe swishing through an invisible breeze that could freeze the shoule nonetheless. Nara could feel her very soul crack in fear as a grin that glinted like steel formed on Haggars face.

"Q.B.E 2, subject angel, how _interesting_ to see you again." The witch snarled.

"Move, NOW." Nara shouted in terror. Without any answer from Lance, they both took off away from the witches gleaming eyes, her cackle following them like a ghost.    

 .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .   

_Earlier..._

Shiro peered warily around the corner of the cave. According to Allura, they were finally close to the shield's location. He shined his hand upward, and the light glinted off yet another mass littered on the ground.

"Another guard, a bot, that's the sixth one yet." He noted. Hunk nervously stepped around the broken bot and continued forward. He kept his cannon ready just in case whatever was taking down the guards came after them while Allura tapped away at her holomap.

"We're close, around the next corner to be exact." Shiro sprinted ahead of Hunk, coming to a stop when light began to shine at the end of the tunnel.

"You're right."

The three of the came to the final corner and peered around it as if they were in a scooby doo movie. Allura seemed to mutter some string of an Altaean curse, stopping when Shiro and Hunk stared at her in disbelief. She coughed into her hand awkwardly.

"Eherm, uh, well it seems the shields are still up, hopefully Nara and Lance are alright..."

She walked up to the shield and placed a hand on it. Ripples waved outward from where her fingers met with the mystical, corrupted energy.

"Ahh man what are we gonna do if they get caught?" Hunk stammered nervously. Shiro shook his head.

"Don't worry Hunk I'm sure theyre fine-" He cut himself off as their attention quickly turned to the shield. Allura backstepped in suprise when it dissappated into a burst of sparkles.

Shiro motioned forward. "See? They must be alright." Allura nodded in agreement at his assumption.

"Let us press forward."

.     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .  

The three of them walked for another ten minutes down through the caverns that were now dimly lit in a blue hue of light. Yet, suddenly, Shiro wavered on his feet, clutched the side of his helmet with one hand as his head began to mysteriously throb like a pounding hammer.

"Ugh, do you guys feel that?" He turned his gaze to them and noticed they seemed to be having trouble as well.

"Gah yea, my head hurts, uh man I don't feel so good, its like im walking on air..." Hunk muttured while Allura held her brow.

"It must be the anomoly's power, it's resonating with our quintessence... Uhh..." Shiro ran forward as Allura fell to one knee. "I'm quite alright, don't worry." She reassured. Shiro still helped her to her feet, and the group pressed on. The black paladin began to feel a tug at the back of his mind ever so slight. Yet, Shiro couldn't even feel past it the drumming of his headache unless he focused solely on the weird presence, the feeling like a low hum. He decided it was because of the anomoly and chose to ignore it, focusing on their incoming goal. The cave began to glow brighter around them, and finally, after one more curve in the cavern, they reached their destination. The cave widened out into an open platform of rock about fifty feet long that ended at a cliff. A loud swooshing sound filled the group's ears, and the sight before them was something to behold. Quintessence flowed in a highspeed constant stream outward, passing higher than the openings ceiling all the way to the surface. The energy was a translucent sky blue, twisting and curving in tendrils as it flowed upward. The other cliffside of the cylindrical funnel of energy had to be almost a football field, possibly two away, and could just barely be seen. Allura, Shiro, and Hunk stared in awe above them, where the bright flow was cut from their view.

"This must be it, but I've never seen quintessence acting so violatile before, this is amaz-" Her statement was cut short when her eyes lowered and rested on a figure standing at the edge of the cliff. The shadowy frame was covered in a dark plated armor not dissimilar to the paladin's, but seemed to allow lithe movements in contrast, more resembling design that of a ninja than the paladin's own bulky armor. The stranger bore a matching hood and mask with purple slits embedded into it. He or she was watching whatever was below the cliff with a hand outstretched. Slowly, something fell from the stranger's palm, a glint of shining reflection before falling into the abyss.

"You, who are you?!" Allura exclaimed. The stranger jumped at their announced presence and drew a long blade from a sheath along his/her back. Yet, wierdly enough, when the figure took in the newcomers, he/she faltered, raising her head as if in shock. Shiro ran forward as the figure turned its attention and seemed to look down the cavern worriedly. He activated his arm and slashed, the figure blocking with a retaliating swipe of great skill of his/her own, and lept back into the quintessence. Shiro watched in awe as the stranger activated some sort of squirrel suit and in a burst of interlocked fabric flew upward. A sound then eminated from the armor, barely heard above the quintessence flow.

"Escape!" It seemed to yell before disappearing out of sight towards the surface. Shiro heard the warning and looked downward with a confused expression. His eyes widened in realization as they landed on the bleeping device the figure had dropped, slowly falling downward with an erratic red light.

"HUNK, ALLURA, WE'VE GOT TO GO NOW!" He yelled, activating his jetpack. Hunk complied, and flew forward as well. As Shiro's figure entered the quintessence, he felt his very being seemed to rattle. The quintessence shook his bones to the core, his chest tightening and expanding with each woosh of the mysterious energy. The tug from earlier became stronger and stronger, a thunderstorm in Shiro's ears as he flew upward.

" _Paladin, danger_!" A voice yelled, but from where, Shiro knew not. Hunk caught up beside him with Allura riding her jetpack in his wake. The three of them were boosted, or more like thrown, to the surface by the quintessences flow. They were flung outward from the energy, far above the jungle surface. After steadying themselves, Shiro, Hunk, and Allura flew at an angle downwards towards the direction of the lions. Shiro turned his head back towards the quintessence and all of a sudden, there was a large BANG and a shockwave that could have split the massive trees below them for miles around. Allura turned behind them as well and watched in panick as the quintessence was swallowed in a fireball that was closing in fast.

"Look out!" She shrieked as Shiro and Hunk yelled in alarm. Thankfully, they were just out of the fireballs range, and the heatwave that hit them wasn't strong enough to break through their armor. To their dismay though, it was certainly strong enough to affect their jetpacks to a point where they were overheated and short-circuited by its strength.

" _Paladin!_ " The voice called again as Shiro watched the jungle come ever closer.

" _No, No, NO! We have to survive this!_ " He thought desperately. Shiro looked to Hunk who was grasping Allura tightly in his arms. He then gazed downward again at the fast approaching foliage, praying that the trees would break their fall.

" _Please no..._ " He thought, closing his eyes for what he hoped wasn't the final time. Yet, the sound of crashing, splintering branches, and broken bones never came. Shiro opened his eyes in awe as the black and yellow lions enveloped the paladins just yards above the treeline. Between the span of five seconds, he went from free fall to the comfort of his piloting chair.

"Thank goodness... Thank you so much..." He murmured breathlessly to his lion, expecting no sound in return. Yet, something did answer, causing the already shaken man to jump further out of his wits.

" _You are welcome... My cub..._ " it whispered before fading away, taking Shiro's headache along with it.

" _What..._ " Shiro wondered. His thoughts were broken by a simultaneous transmission from Hunk and Coran.

"Are you three alright?! I could see the explosion all the way from up here!" Coran exclaimed worriedly. Allura chuckled in response.

"We're fine Coran, honestly, but the real question is is how are the others?" Coran stroked his beard over the screen.

"It seems Keith and Pidge made it safely back to their lions, but Nara and Lance are still trapped inside!" Coran sent the image of the facility's map to Shiro's lion. He watched anxiously as two blips ran towards the direction of the mining site's hangar.

"Alright, they're heading for the hangar, Coran can you relay that we will pick them up-" He was interrupted by a sudden transmission.

"Or you could just tell us that yourself bossman!" Lance exclaimed. Hunk made a wooping noise at Lance's snarky comment.

"Al-right Lance! It's great to hear ya buddy!"

Keith's voice came online as well as he and Pidge flew out from their respective caverns.

"Lance, you and Nara alright?!" He asked worriedly, a tone that was strange when heard from Keith.

"We're fine Keith, it's good to know you and Pidge weren't crushed by boudlers so that's also a plus." the blue paladin replied almost nonchalantly, yet there was fear hidden underneath. Nara's voice came on next in a more serious tone.

"We need extraction, Haggar is behind us and I don't know if she's following us but she's here!"

Shiro's eyes bugged out in panic. He took a deep breath needed to regain his composure, for he knew what the druids could do from firsthand experience.

"Guys, we have to get them out of there now!" He commanded. A resounding "right" filled the coms as the four lions flew towards the facility that was about a half mile out. The paladins readied themselves for battle as fightercrafts began to fly from the large frigates below.

.     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .   

Lance and Nara stumbled to the floor as a huge explosion rattled the earth.

"Well looks like somebody blew up something." Lance stated. Nara gave him an annoyed grunt for his obviousness.

They continued their sprint for what felt like a lifetime., and Nara soon pulled up the holomap.

"Okay, let's head for the hangars, maybe we can get a ship and fly the hell out of here." Lance huffed in tired agreement as their legs flew them down another corridor. Surprisingly , their marathon was uninterrupted by guards, making Nara keep glancing over her shoulder expectantly for the demon to appear at any second.

" _We have to get out of here, she'll kill us both..._ " Lance made a fleeting cheering noise as the comms finally frizzled fully back online. Shiro was talking about their position and relaying something to Nara and the blue paladin before Lance interrupted him.

"Or you could just tell us that yourself bossman." He said. He answered questions from the others and Nara chuckled next to him as the hangar finally came into sight. Her tone became much more serious.

"We need extraction now, Haggar is behind us and I don't know if she's following us but she's here."

She couldn't hear Shiro's reply because both Lance and her were forced to skid to a halt. The hall opened up into the hangar and two lines of Galran fightercrafts lined the far right wall of the colossal hangar. A huge, rhombus shaped opening for crafts to enter and exit took up the entirety of where a wall would be opposite of Lance and Nara's position. Although quite impressive from a technological standpoint, it wasn't the size of the room or the crafts that stopped them though. It was the group of almost twenty Galrans with their guns pointing at both of them from only about fifty yards away. To worsen the matter, they were closing in fast, and began to fire. Nara flung her arms forward and blocked the blasts, spreading her quintessence as thin as possible to create a huge shield. There was so little quintessence covering the plates that they tinged with metal blinking sounds as blasterfire connected with them. The Galrans charge faltered at Nara's show of power but they continued to fire.

"Lance, you have to take them down!" She exclaimed. He readied his gun, but before facing the onslaught, Lance gasped.

"Look out!" He warned, before firing his blaster behind Nara. Nara craned her head slowly to see what he was shooting at. She almost missed Haggar dissappearing in a whisp of smoke before reappearing far behind them.

" _No... This can't be happening!_ " Nara thought in terror. Just the sight of the witch caused her breathing to seize up.

"I got this, just hold on!" Lance said before running back towards the witch.

"LANCE NO-" she tried to yell before her focus had to be whipped back to her strained shield. Lance readied his stance, taking aim at the black cloaked demon. He pulled the trigger, letting blue bolts fly. Haggar simply grinned before dissappating in black mist yet again, only a few feet to the left. Lance tried his best to hit her, walking closer and closer for a better shot, but Haggar just continued to cackle at every dodge. Nara tried to look back again but her mind faltered her action out of complete fear

" _What do I do, what CAN I do, there has to be something!_ " She almost begged to herself. Her eyes finally rested on the witch licking her lips maniacally.

"YOU are the blue paladin? My dear boy, YOU are a joke." she rasped maniacally.

"Lance just run, you can't fight her!" Nara yelled in desperation.

"I'm not leaving you!" He yelled back, still trying to blast the witch with all his might. Suddenly, she teleported just a few feet in front of the paladin. She raised a finger, and a dark bolt of angry violet energy shot at Lance and sent him flying and rolling to the ground in a smoking mass. Haggar then appeared on top of him in a burst of black ashes, kicking the beyard away. Dark tendrils whisper their way around Lance's arms and legs, pinning him to the ground. He struggled with all his might, but the energy wouldn't budge.

"You mewling humans are an embarrassment to the true power of Voltron... You have been a thorn in the Galran's might for far too long." She seethed out just loud enough for Lance to hear. His struggling against the witches restraining magic slowed, and his sky blue eyes widened in complete, helpless terror. Haggar smiled once again at the sight of the blue paladin's trepidation, a grin most foul.

"And you... You shall pay" She whispered. Nara turned again from the guards and froze. All sound was sucked out of existence as time slowed to a crawl in a single moment. The silence lasted too long, oh so long it, but had to come to an end at some point, for Nara's screams ripped through the air long before Lance's as two bolts of black light from Haggar's spell ripped at his eyes.

. . . . . ."LAAAAAAANNNCCCEEE!" Nara wailed. The blue Paladin's screams could have easily shattered glass. She watched helplessly as Haggar plunged the edges of her nails into Lances eyes, causing the boy to writhe further in agony. At that point, all of Nara's resolve to hold back crumbled. Every wall she built up over training during the past few weeks fell to crumbled dust, darkness bleeding through the enlarging cracks.

" _Noo..._ "

Splinters drove through every nerve of her body. Her vision blurred the deepest of violets, strings of mangenta weaving their way through her blood.

" _Stop... Leave him ALONE!_ " Everything next happened in slow motion from the frenzying girl's perspective. Nara whipped her head back towards the assaulting Galrans, her hair a floating whisp of dark hazel. This flash of chocolate mahogany strands was the last thing they would ever see. She flicked her wrist upward, pointing every plate towards the guards, glistening edges ready to attack. The quintessence thinned like a net, leaving holes in the shield, but she didn't care, nothing mattered right now except Lance, saving Lance. The pain of the blasts that met with her left side and right forearm was nonexistent. Driving both of her arms downward with a ferocious cry, her energy surged forward in a whip of strands of angry light. One by one, metal and white hot energy cut through the guards, violet strands hanging suspended in the burnt holes now carved into their bodies. Nara yanked back, slicing every single last one in half. Before severed bodies could hit the floor, the raging girl spun towards Haggar and lept into the air. Each millisecond that passed was an eternity as Nara soared ever closer to the witch. Haggars eyes looked up and met with Nara's, two glowing orbs carved into a mask of one of the darkest creatures the universe could possibly produce. Nara feared seeing those eyes each night as she tried to reach slumber, creeping into her conscience to remind the girl of the pain of her past. Yet, that ever present terror was replaced now with infinite rage. The demon's grin faded as Nara took her swing. She pulled at the quintessence, pooling the plates into a mass at the end of the taught rope of energy to make a sort of ball and chain. The witch, stuck to Lance, had no chance of moving in time. Nara spun in mid-air, swinging the mass of plates and driving them directly into Haggars side. With a cry of pain, she was thrown off of the blue Paladin, slamming into a Galran fighter craft with the speed of a bullet. Nara came rolling to the floor in a heap of fast, twitchy breaths. Her mind felt like it was melded into clay, but with a couple shakes of the cranium, her vision starting to clear. The quintessence, it's energy borderline exauhsted, slid behind into her back.

" _Wha... Oh god... LANCE!_ "

She quickly stumbled to her feet and ran to the poor boy where he was laying on the ground, giving short gasps of breath. Nara leaned down to inspect the damage and sucked in a sharp breath of her own. His eyelids were burned shut and an extremely dark purple and badly swollen. Veiny strands ran down his cheeks passing the skin that was burned. She didn't even want to think about the state of his eyes themselves.

" _Back to the castle, a cryopod, a cryopod can fix him!_ " She thought desperately. Nara glanced towards where the witch had slammed into a ship. The metal had folded around her from the impact and satisfyingly enough, only the demon's hand stuck out of the hole. Nara swore when she saw it twitch.

" _I should finish the job..._ " She thought in anger. Nara tried to activate her quintessence again, but it wouldn't work. No matter how hard she focused, her power was exauhsted.

" _Damnit!_ "

She looked back to Lance and hoisted him over her shoulder with a grunt, then put a hand to her helmet. While speaking, she bent down to retreive the blue paladins beyard.

"Guys, we need help, right now. Lance is hurt bad and we have to get him back to the castle." She informed in a shaky voice.

" _Stay calm stay calm he'll be fine, the pods will fix him he will be fine_."

"What do you mean Lance is hurt? What happened?!" Keith demanded with a crackle of static in his voice. Nara heard an explosion coming from his end, and figured the lions were currently in a firefight.

"Not now please he's going to be fine I'll explain later."

Nara glanced towards the dismembered guards on the floor. She forced herself to ignore the fact that some of them were real Galrans because bile began to rise in her throat. Her eyes dragged themselves towards the entrance of the hangar as the black lion came skidding in.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Shiro turned to the sound of footsteps entering his lions cockpit. He rose out of the chair in horror when he saw the states his teammates were in. Nara bore two completely burnt spots through her spacesuit on her arm and left side which were rimmed with blood. She met his worried gaze and grunted.

"He's worse... Hurry, get us out of here."

She layed Lance down from over her shoulder and Shiro let out an angry breath.

" _His eyes..._ " Shiro sat back down in the pilot chair and swiveled forward. He cranked the thrusters backward, causing the lion to leap backwards and out of the hangar. He twisted the lion forward and flew towards where a firefight was now taking place. The black paladin glanced for a moment back at Nara who was now wiping blood off Lances forehead. She put the blue beyard to his side and it disappeared into the suit in a flash of sparks.

"I've got Nara and Lance, we won't be able to form Voltron we should retreat for now." He reported, turning his head forward. Shiro sucked in a sharp breath as three Galran ships rose from the jungle. Below them, the blue lion hung suspended in a dark pink orb.

"Hunk, Pidge, get the blue lion, Keith and I will cover you!" He commanded. The yellow lion veered sharply towards the fightercrafts. Hunk barreled through one as Pidge shot the other two. Hunk then spun the ship in a loop and caught the blue lion in it's claws just before hitting the thick foliage below.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Keith's grip tightened on his controls, his muscles tensing tighter with every passing second.

" _Lance... Damn it!_ "

Shiro's voice transmitted through Keith's helmet, breaking his internal battle.

"We've got the blue lion, prepare to retreat. Coran, Lance needs a cryopod readied."

"What's wrong with Lance?" Allura questioned worriedly from the yellow lion. Shiro paused, gritting his teeth.

"Haggar got to him... He's in bad shape so we need to hurry." Keith's eyes widened at Shiro's explanation. He didn't want to believe it.

" _Haggar really got to him... Lance is hurt..._ " A heavy weight pierced at Keiths chest like a white hot sword.

" _I promised to keep him safe... I... I... DAMN IT ALL_ " Keith turned his lion sharply with a yell.

" _Keith, what are you-!?_ " Shiro's concern was drowned out by Keith's yell as the red lion flew like a flash towards the facility. He yanked both thrusters back in rage and a large cannon formed in a burst of sparks above the red lion. With a flash as bright as a sun, the cannon fired, carving an uneven line straight through the facility. Explosions followed in it's wake, turning the place into a heaping blaze of mangled machinery. Before Keith could go in for a final assault, something rammed his lion. When his controls weren't doing anything, he realized that the black lion had caught him in it's maw.

"SHIRO let me GO!" He yelled in blind rage.

"Keith, you're not thinking straight, we need to leave, NOW." The black paladin commanded with complete authority that knocked Keith out of his stupor. The red paladin saw what his leader meant as he looked into the upper atmosphere. There was the castle with its shields up, staving off blasts from two Galran military cruisers.

"Shiro, please hurry, we have the other three lions!" Allura exclaimed. He maneuvered his lion through the onslaught of blasterfire masterfully. In front of the castle, a large wormhole burst opened. Grunting, Shiro forced his lion forward as fast as possible. The red and black lions came skating into the castles main hangar just as it entered the wormhole. Behind the door to the hallway stood Hunk and Coran, Hunk slamming a fist on the main hangars door controls, closing them behind the lions with a wooosh.

"Jeez, don't wanna make that mistake again..." Hunk muttured to himself.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

The yellow paladin ran into the hangar as the others exited their lions. Nara and Shiro carefully walked Lance's limp body down the maw of the black lion. From their left, Keith came running, but when he saw Lance, he skidded to a halt, his face going even more pale than normal.

"L-Lance..." He whispered.

Nara grunted under the blue Paladin's weight, her tired knees slightly giving out. Shiro noticed her struggle and, with an appreciative murmur from Nara, took Lance's full weight in his arms. When he turned, he saw Coran and Hunk stopped still, looking at Lance in fearful alarm.

"Let's get him to the medical bay." Shiro said in a calm and level tone. Coran shook himself out of the stupor and nodded. The four paladins followed Coran to the medical bay, but mid sprint, Nara faltered. Shooting pains flared through her body as the adrenaline from before faded. The burns became unbearable with each passing step, and she fell to her knees, clutching her side.

"Nara!" Shiro exclaimed, stopping mid stride. Nara waved him away. "Just go, Lance first!"

Shiro hesitated, and then turned on his heels to sprint after Coran. Hunk stayed behind to help Nara up.

"Holy quiznak Nara... What happened?" He asked, slowly lifting her to her feet. He gazed at the blood spots patterning her suit, most prominent on her shoulder where Lance had been.

"I... Got shot... Trying to stop Haggar" She found it hard to speak, wincing at the action. Hunk nodded in understanding and helped her towards the medical bay. Thankfully, Nara's legs remained unharmed but she still couldn't stay completely on her feet.

"What did she do to Lance" He eventually questioned quietly. Nara just blinked for a second. Now that the adrenaline was gone, a whole plethora of emotions flooded her.

" _Not now just not now._ "

"I'll explain when we're all together..." She replied as coolly as she possibly could. The rest of the walk was made in silence.

. . . . . . . . . . .

Everyone in the med bay watched the pod close in silence. There was a certain tenseness to the air, an expectancy so thick it could be cut like butter. Nara and Hunk soon stumbled in, breaking the quiet tone of the room. Everyone except Coran and Keith turned to face them, Coran analyzing Lances medical data and Keith unable to tear his eyes away from the injured boy. Hunk walked Nara over to a floating table-like structure next to where Coran tapped away and she sat down with a huff, grasping the suit tightly above where the joint of her arm had been shot. Allura leaned in to inspect a cut on her forehead which Nara never remembered getting.

"Nara, what happened?" She asked in a soft sort of command. A pang of guilt knawed at Nara's stomach, but she couldn't bring herself to meet her teammates expectant gazes, so instead she turned her head somberly to the floor.

"Lance and I were... in the hangar-" She winced as Allura began to lift her arm for an inspection of the burnt section. The princess glanced at her in a small apology as Nara continued. "There were guards, a lot of them, coming straight for us. I blocked their blast, but there were too many of them for me... To move..." she faltered at the end of her statement, the gnawing guilt became a tremendous wave that drowned her heart.

" _It's my fault._ "

"Haggar caught up to us, a-and Lance, he t-tried to fight her off."

" _I could have been faster..._ "

"Haggar caught him off guard and.. She... Cast some sort of spell on him."

She figured it would be wise to avoid the gruesome details for an already shaken Pidge. After taking a fluttering breath, she finally lifted her eyes towards the team. They all carried such somber faces, and it broke Nara's heart, forcing her to narrow her eyes to hold back the tears.

" _This is all my fault_ " She thought miserably. Nara turned towards Keith who bore a conflicted expression. He looked so sorrowful, yet so angry, holding that expression like he wanted to say something but didn't know how to put it. Yet, he wasn't given the chance to decide, for Coran turned from the cryopod to give them the verdict.

"Well guys, to put it bluntly, he should be alright. Physically his eyes were only damaged as far as the surface of the coroid of his eye. This is an injury that should be no problem for the cryopod to fix-" He informed with a cheerful tone. Everyone let out a collective breath, the red Paladin's face relaxing a little. Sadly, Coran wasn't done, his voice taking a turn for the grim. "-Yet, the scars on the surrounding skin may not fade right away, if ever that is."

Shiro furrowed his eyes at the news, but forced himself to remain positive. Putting a calming hand on Pidge's shaking shoulder, he spoke. "Hey, at least he will be alright, that's what's important now, we can worry about anything else later."

Allura nodded at him on agreement. "That's right, for now we should leave him be to heal.-" She turned towards Nara, who looked relieved about the news for Lance. A puzzled expression climbed onto Allura's face as she inspected Nara's side. "Nara... How long ago were you burned?"

Nara looked at the princesses expectant gaze in confusion.

"Uhm, maybe less than an hour ago... Why?"

"Because your burns are, fading..." She breathed in disbelief. Nara held up her arm to inspect her shoulder and sure enough, where there had been blackened skin through her suit before now shone an agitated pink. She sucked in a breath and craned her neck to get a view of her side. To her suprise, it had the same pink appearance.

"It's... Healed..." She whispered. Allura stepped backward with a sigh.

"We can figure this out later, enough has already occured today, we should all head to the dining hall and leave Lance in peace." She reasoned, unwilling to tackle this new development without a moment of rest. Shiro nodded and Hunk and Pidge followed in suit while Keith just looked deadpanned, deep in thought. Coran walked over to help Nara off the table.

"Cmon, upsiedaisy."

The pain had already started to fade to a dull ache, allowing her to at least stay on her feet.

"It's alright Coran, I've got it, thank you" She smiled. Coran nodded with a skeptical expression, but regardless walked towards the door. Upon turning her head, Nara noticed the black paladin watching her. Her cheeks dusted light pink at the gaze of his coal colored eyes. Yet, less than a second later, he turned towards the door and followed the others out the room. Before Nara did the same, she saw Keith staring at the pod again.

"Keith? You... okay?" She questioned quietly. The red paladin flinched as if Nara had surpised him. He turned and furrowed his brow at Nara, opening his mouth but then closing it just as fast before finally answering.

"Uh, yea sorry, cmon." He replied quietly, motioning towards the door. Nara's eyebrows knitted together as she walked behind him.

" _He sure is more serious than usual..._ " She glanced back at the pod as it faded from view. " _I guess that's to be expected considering.._."

She held back a sob of regret.

" _I'm sorry Lance I'm so sorry..._ "


	14. Golden eye for Golden eye

Two burning purple eyes gazed down through glass at the dying planet of Evescia. Long, quintessional strands laced towards the space station, neon green tendrils forcibly twisted outward. The lush jungle slowly turned into a wasteland of nettle and brittle bark. With a great crack, fissures erupted all over the surface as the last ounce of life was sucked away.

"You have failed me, you told me you would not fail, you are certainly lucky I need you alive." Zarkon whispered in a tone seething malice and anger.

"We must find another way to reach the Well, Voltron will not stop me from obtaining it's power..." The Emperor slowly turned from the window towards a round glass case. Inside, a torn up Haggar was suspended in liquid and hooked to many different hoses pumping dark essences. Where chunks of flesh were missing, small robots zipped around to fill them with metal.

"Interestingly enough Haggar, your blunder will bring you greater power than ever before."

The emperor's tone grew louder with each word and ended with a low bout of laughter. Behind him, planet Evescia crumbled into dust, it's inhabitants cries turning to only a distant forgotten echo.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Nara sat down with a huff at the dining table with the rest of the team. They had all agreed to clean up and gather their bearings a bit before debriefing, leading Nara to change out of her battered space suit into her normal attire. She listened with great intent as Shiro, Hunk, and Allura retold their side of the story, trying her best to ignore the quieter tone of the room.

"- Yea it was terrifying but totally amazing, the energy was just sucked up in a giant fireball like poof!" Hunk exclaimed, throwing his hands outward.

"It was probably a bit more scary than cool, but that is about the jist of it." Shiro agreed for the most part. He continued the story from there, a quizzical look rising on his face.

"We still don't know who that person was though, obviously they weren't Galran, but when we had spoken with Rolo all those weeks ago, he had said there were no known organized resistances big enough to possibly pull that off..."

"Well, it's not like Rolo was exactly a trustworthy source" Pidge interjected quietly. Allura nodded next to her, choosing not to address the young girls melancholy tone.

"Without any alternative sources of information, we have to assume this person is against the Galra and may have connections on the inside of their operations, after all, how else would he or she have known the anomaly's location or gotten through the shield?"

"But what if it's just that one person? I mean, wouldn't you guys heard from an organized resistance by now if you're the universes only hope?" Nara reasoned. Allura's face turned a bit sour, making Nara look away sheepishly.

"We can't give up hope that the lions aren't the only power left in the universe to fight Zarkon, if there is even a slight chance that a resistance exists, we will hold onto that hope." Everyone else nodded in agreement. Nara glanced over to Shiro, who currently had his arms crossed as if he were debating with himself about something.

"Shiro? You alright?" She asked aloud. The attention of the room shifted to him as he looked up in slight surprise.

"Oh ah, yea... It's just... There was something else, something kind of _strange_ that happened when we were inside the anomaly." He explained. "You see, I think that my lion... Spoke to me."

Coran and the princess furrowed their brows at each other. After a moment of contemplation, Coran decided to fill the silence first with a shake of his head.

"That cannot be possible, it took hundreds of years for the original paladin's to develop bonds strong enough to telepathically communicate with the lions! And even _then_ it was still difficult to communicate with them for more than a couple of ticks. You must have heard something else." Coran concluded.

"But it's true, she kept saying paladin, my paladin, and even said you're welcome after I thanked her for saving me from falling!"

Hunk suddenly raised his hand up from across the table.

"Ah, if it helps, I felt a stronger pull from my lion in my head after we left the weird flowy energy field, and I'm like 90% sure she even laughed at me after she caught Allura and I."

Allura looked at him in exahsperation. "If that was the case Hunk, why didn't you say anything before?"

"Because I didn't know if it was real or not! But know hearing that kinda the same thing happened to Shiro makes me believe that it was." He replied after making many different hand motions pointing in all directions. The princess held a hand to her chin.

"It must have to do with the anomaly's presence. Keith, Pidge, did either of you notice any difference in your lion's behaviors?" Pidge shook her head slowly, still looking off into space even as she replied. "Nope, nothing, how bout you Keith?"

Keith looked up from where he had been intently studying the table, not really paying attention to the conversation before him until now.

"Wha- ah- oh, no not really, I mean it did feel easier to activate red's cannon but that may just be a coincidence." Shiro narrowed his eyes at Keith's lack of attention but let it go for now.

"Either way, maybe due to the surge of quintessional energy you have forcibly strengthened the bond between your lions? This is an interesting discovery that will need to be looked into-" Allura stated before continuing. "- But for now, let us hear your sides of the story." She motioned to Nara, Pidge, and Keith. Pidge glanced towards Keith, who looked like he had no intention of speaking, and took up explaining the story for both him and Nara. Yet, once she got to the part where they reached the prison control room, the green paladin hesitated.

" _does he really want me to tell them about Thrace?_ " She wondered. Keith perked up at this part, taking over where Pidge had paused.

"We were able to free the prisoners from there and left afterwards, there were too many Galrans to fight in the hallway so we ran."

" _Looks like thats a no_ " Pidge concluded. Shiro looked between them with slight contemplation.

" _Keith ran from a fight?_ " He wondered in disbelief.

"Either way, you guys know the rest." The red paladin finished quietly. The rising tone of the room turned a bit more grave at the implication given. Feeling the turn of the rooms emotional temperature, Allura changed the subject.

"Nara, before we finish speaking, I want to ask, did you know about your body's ability to heal at such a fast rate?" She questioned. Nara looked upward at the attention of the room turning to her and shook her head firmly.

"No, I didn't, whenever I woke up for a recharge, I assumed that the Galran's were the ones to stitch me up beforehand." She said in a surprisingly calm tone.

"Whelp, just add it to the already long list of crazy things in our lives." A sarcastic Pidge stated aloud. Nara chuckled in response but Allura seemed unamused.

"In any case, we will look into this later, but for now I believe the day has been long enough."

Coran stepped forward twisting his mustache. "I agree with the princess, besides, we will not be reaching our next stop for awhile, so you will have plenty of time for training and rest."

"Where are we going next?" Hunk questioned.

"To the nearest rest stop of sorts, the Granuliar nebulae! We need spare parts to repair the ship and since we have no current leads on the Galra, you all may be able to pick up some info."

Keith looked up in slight anger. "So we're basically taking a vacation? In the middle of a war? That's a pointless waste-" Coran rose a finger to Keith's lips to shush him.

"Ahp ap ap ap, not a vacation, an intelligence hunt." Keith slapped his hand away and folded his arms while Allura sighed in vexation.

"Besides, even if we knew anything important about the Galra besides what we already know of, We have to face the fact that we cannot form Voltron without Lance." She stated matter of factly. An uncomfortable silence fell over the group until Shiro broke it.

"Well, for now lets not worry about that, Lance will be just fine. What we should do is get some rest." A murmur of agreement came from everyone else and they began to rise from the dining table.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"Goodnight Pidge." Nara said as the green paladin disappeared into her quarters. Before turning, she noticed a red flash disappearing down the hallways corner.

"Where's he going?" She questioned out loud. Shiro walked up behind her from where he had been standing by his door.

"Probably to the training room to let off some steam, best to leave him alone now, he'll never admit it but I think he's pretty worried about Lance." At his assumption, the girl's gut suddenly felt like someone had grabbed her intestines and twisted.

"Yea, sounds like him..." She muttered, causing Shiro to look down at her in concern.

"You okay? You've been pretty quiet ever since we got back."

She turned to face him, attempting to cover her worry with a brave face.

"Yea, I'm a little shaken but besides that, im completely fine." She replied with a shrug, to which he only narrowed his eyes in disbelief. Nara watched him do so and swore in her head.

" _Curse his goddamn perceptiveness..._ "

"Don't do that Nara." He eventually said in a hard tone.

"Do what?" She questioned innocently. He shook his head, letting out an annoyed sigh, his white tuft of hair swishing back and forth.

"Don't blame yourself for what happened to Lance, it's not your fault."

Nara lowered her head to the floor.

"It's not your job to worry about that you know..." She muttured. Shiro put a hand on her shoulder, forcing her to lift her head towards his gaze where his eyes had softened from a hard steel to a warm glinting pool. She was always mezmerized by those orbs and always took any chance she had to stare into them with complete fascination, even during her garrison days.

"It became my job when you joined this team. Besides, I promised I would help you through your trauma and I'm keeping that promise. Worrying about Lance when it was something you couldn't control isn't going to help anyone."

"But what if I could have... I could have been faster. I should have stopped Haggar faster." She whispered.

" _And those guards... I've never CONSCIOUSLY killed anything before..._ " She thought in horror. The black paladin shook his head again.

"You still saved him, if you hadn't done anything... Lance wouldn't be here safe with us, just try to focus on that."

His words were soft and consoling, they were always what needed to be said. The knot in Nara's stomach slowly began to unwind.

" _He always knows how to make me feel better..._ " She thought with a small smirk.

A moment of silence passed, then two, until Shiro's hand began to travel. Slowly, his fingertips brushed up over her skin, coming to a rest on the girl's cheek. He cupped her chin in his human hand, it's warmth permeating and everpresent. She reached her own hand and gently laced it over his fingers, angling her head into the cup of his palm. They never broke eye contact, wordlessly exchanging endless compassion through content faces. Her skin felt like static when he brushed a thumb over the small scar by her right eye. They slowly pulled towards eachother, a light blush dusting the angry scar crossing Shiro's nose. Colors began to blur together in Nara's vision, all of the focus on the man before her.

" _Nara..._ " He whispered oh so softly.

Suddenly, Shiro's eyes darted upward. He backstepped, pulling his hand away, its warmth now nothing but a lost echo on the confused girl's skin. She whipped her head to the side and saw Hunk turn around the corner towards them. He was focused on a plate of food goo in his left hand, a spork resting in his right. Before reaching his door, he looked up and stopped.

"Oh, hey guys, ah... Am I interrupting something?"

Before Nara could even open her mouth to spout an excuse, Shiro beat her to it. "Nara was just telling me something about today that she forgot to tell everyone else, we were just about to go to bed."

"Oh, ghwell den, ghood nigft." Hunk replied with a face full of food goo. The yellow paladin then turned into his quarters, the door wooshing closed behind him. Nara furrowed her brow into a deep valleyed crease.

" _Was he just about to... Kiss me? No... I mean, I'm not complaining but... Would he?..._ "

She decided an escape was better than a confrontation.

"Well, goodnight then..." Nara muttured with a red face before turning towards her door.

"Where are you going?" He asked in a questioning voice, as if the past minute had never happened, causing Nara to stop in her tracks.

"To bed... I just thought, I mean last night... I don't want to bother you." She stammered. Shiro chuckled with a light smile, his mood completely changed from before.

"It's not a bother, my necks still a little stiff I'll admit, but you still haven't exactly had a good nights sleep yet have you?"

She made an annoyed face which did nothing to affect his expectant gaze before finally replying.

"I promised I would try to sleep better on my own, besides I feel bad for making you take the floor..." A slightly shocked look brushed across his face which was quickly replaced with a smile again.

"Well, If you think you'll be alright, I'll trust you." He paused, looking like he was contemplating something, but then continued with, "goodnight, and let me know if you need anything.", and turned into his room with a woosh of the door. Nara narrowed her eyes in thought, but just shook her head in denial, turning into her room as well. Yet, she could have _sworn_ he was frowning, but it must have been a trick of the light. She leaned back against the door of her quarters and slowly reached for her cheek. It felt so cold, such a contrast to when his hand had been there. Nara was so focused on the touch that she never heard the wizz of the green Paladin's door outside.

. . . . . . . . . . .

On the other side of the castle, Keith stomped towards the training room. His mind was a jumble of confusion and stress that if he couldn't unravel through sitting around then he'd force it apart with training. The echo of his heels clicked louder upon passing the med bay. He stopped, forcing his eyes towards the single active cryopod.

" _He doesn't deserve this... He's the last person to deserve this..._ "

He walked towards the pod in a less angry strut than before, placing a hand on the cold glass. It was freezing to the touch of his palm, a fact made obvious from the frost crusting Lances hair. His eyelids had improved, Keith noted, turning from the original dark purple to a fade between lavender and pink. The swelling had also gone down, Lance could probably open his eyes, that is if Keith just made one push of a button. Yet, the blue paladin needed to stay there until morning apparently. Keith rested his forehead against the glass with a huff.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there Lance, I promised I'd bring you home alright, I already broke it..." He whispered. Knowing the slumbering boy couldn't hear Keiths monologue, the red paladin plopped down to the floor with a flump, his head still resting on the pod.

"God this is bullshit!" He yelled, banging his fist against the glass. His thoughts traveled back to Thrace's words.

" _His son... How could I be his son?..._ "

Keith slowly reached behind him, pulling out his ever present knife. After staring at it for a second, he pulled at the wrapping. Behind the cover, strange markings traced up the hilt onto the blade, laced with light accents of violet. They were the same carvings as on Thrace's knife.

" _Your mother gave you that knife..._ "

" _How would he know that?_ "

Long buried memories began to surface at the precipace of Keith's mind. Her hair black as charcoal, long and whispy. A voice rang out, calling his name to come for dinner, a song that would put even the most beautiful of mockingjays to shame. One clear memory surfaced above all others. A silouhette of his mother, her hand outstretched towards him. The knife rested in her palm.

" _Keep it safe Keithy... Keep it safe for your daddy...Honey, I love you so much, remember that..._ "

Keith had never known his father. He pushed the past visions back with a clench of his eyes, swearing under his breath. He had repressed these thoughts for a reason and wasn't about to break down any more than he already was. His eyes travelled back up to Lance, his form blurred by tears.

" _But what if... He has to be wrong... But the knife... And my mother..._ "

"Would you hate me if I was one of them?" He whispered. Keith pulled his head away and turned around to lean against the pod, resting his head in his hands instead. The same words rang thick in his skull over and over.

" _You fight like a Galran... You fight like a Galran..._ " He clenched his teeth, grabbing fistfulls of hair, his head tucked down between his knees now.

" _It's not true god damnit it's not true._ " He prayed with a sob. " _He'll... They'll all hate me if it's true... It's not true... Please it can't be..._ "

"Keith?" A voice rang out. The red paladin looked up in surprise, his eyes resting on Pidge. Her face was clouded with worry.

"Are you okay?" She asked, walking towards him. The green paladin looked towards Lance with a fleeting grim expression but continued towards Keith. She came to a stop when she was standing just above where Keith was crunched into a ball.

" _I'm not okay... I'm not okay... I could be a monster, this isn't okay..._ "

"Yea, I... I'm fine, uh... How are you?" He attempted to reply casually but completely failed. Social cues were nowhere near his specialty. Pidge just sighed at his pithily ass response and took a seat next to him.

"I know you're worried about what that Galran said-" Keith looked back to the floor avoiding Pidge's gaze "- but just think, it's impossible I mean cmon you'd be purple and have fuzzy ears if you were his son for quiznaks sake!"

Keith just ran his fingers through his long mop of hair, letting out a long gasp of breath.

"I know Pidge, I know... It's just freaking me out... Some of the stuff he said lines up with my past and... There's been other things that have happened in the past couple months to point towards it..." He gently lifted the knife that had been resting at his side. Pidge's eyes bugged out when she saw the markings.

"What do you mean?" She whispered. Keith blinked at her in hesitation.

" _She can tell if I'm lying... I can trust her with this..._ "

"Back when Allura had been taken to Zarkon central command, remember how I said I had fought with one of the druids?" Pidge nodded slowly. "Well... During the fight I was knocked into a quintessence container containing the dark stuff. It splashed onto my hand and... It changed... To purple..." He tried to explain. "And then during the fight, Zarkon had said... That I fight like a Galra..."

Pidge suddenly jumped to her feet.

"NO" She exclaimed, making Keith flinch in suprise. "It's not true, it can't be true! They're just messing with your head and I'm not going to let them do that, we'll prove it wrong!"

Keith rose to his feet. "And how do you suppose we'll do that, it's not like we have dark quintessence just readily available on board you know."

Pidge lifted a hand to her chin for a long stretch of time, making Keith shift uncomfortably on his feet.

"Hmmm, maybe we do..." She eventually said with a gleam glinting off her glasses.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

"You sure this'll work?" Keith questioned skeptically. He and Pidge had travelled to her lab in the green lion's hangar. Pidge had the idea of using the tainted crystal from the spitraries planet as a catalyst for, well, whatever could happen to Keith. Keith's hand now hovered just above the pulsating, dark crystal while Pidge tapped away on her laptop. She swiveled in her chair with an annoyed grunt.

"It's not supposed to work, that's the point of it, we're trying to prove them and you wrong." She stated matter of factly. Keith turned his head back to the crystal, its hard surface humming with energy against his palm even as it rested inches away from its surface.

"Alright... Just tell me when..." He replied with an exasperated breath.

Pidge smirked and turned back to her laptop.

"Okay, infrareds up, bioscans operational... On my mark Keith, three... Two... One... Go." Keith pressed his hand onto the cold surface of the giant gemstone. At first, it did nothing but pulsate beneath his palm for a few drawn out seconds.

"See, told you-"

The green Paladin's gloating was quickly interrupted by a swish of sparkles traveling up Keith's arm. The crystal began to glow brightly, and Keith felt his skin tingle along with it. The light pulse became brighter and brighter until Keith was suddenly flung backwards by a burst of pure energy.

"GAH!"

He came tumbling to a stop about ten feet away. Pidge removed her hands from her face where they had been attempting to block the light and ran to Keith's now smoking body.

"Keith, are you alri..?!" She stopped midword with a sharp gasp. Keith rolled over and turned towards the frozen girl with a grunt.

"Ugh, Pidge, remind me to never agree to one of your ballistic ideas ever again..." His voice faded into confusion as he rubbed his head. Pidge was staring at him motionlessly.

"What, what is it?" He questioned.

"Keith..." She whispered, taking a step back.

"What what, what is it, spit... It out..." His eyes had focused on his reflection in the girls glasses.

"No..." He croaked in a broken voice. Staring back at him, Keith, the human red paladin, was a purple furred, wide eared Galran with gleaming yellow eyes.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Keith shook his head frantically, his hair swishing right along with him. He lifted his hands up and his breath hitched. Purple claws, long and sharp, had torn through his gloves, the skin showing through a light lavender. He ran past the shocked Pidge and grabbed at the blank computer screen.

"Noooo...." He breathed again. His face was a solid shade of lavender as well. Sprouting through his black hair were two cat-like, fur-covered ears, and his eyes now glinted like opaque topaz gems.

"Keith... That... But..." Pidge stammered. She sounded like she was about to cry. Keith slowly rose and turned to face her, realizing tears were already streaming down her face.

"I... I'm one of them..."

" _I'm a murderer, I'm the kind who abducted Pidge's family, who tortured Shiro... I'm a monster._ " He took a step towards Pidge. She backstepped away from him, folding her arms into her chest. Keith felt his heart crack a little.

"Pidge... It's still me, please I'm still Keith..." He begged. The paladin felt hot tears drip over his own face. Pidge shook her head again causing Keith to close his eyes in broken defeat, that is until a sudden force knocked him back. He looked down in shock to see Pidge with her arms wrapped around his waist.

"I know" She sniffled "I know it's you... This is all my fault Keith I'm so sorry I shouldn't have pushed it."

Keith, shaking himself from his shocked stupor, slowly wrapped his arms around her. He kept his grip light in order to avoid his claws tearing at her shirt.

"It's okay, it's not your fault..." He mumbled. Pidge backstepped, sliding slowly out of the hug. She walked a full circle around him.

"This is just impossible... I don't even understand how this is biologically possible." She muttered. Pidge reached up to feel one of his ears in which he responded with a jerk. The girl backstepped in alarm.

"Aha sorry, they're just... Really sensitive." He apologized quietly.

"My bad." She replied, continuing her analysis of him. She adjusted her glasses and froze, her mouth falling agape.

"Oh God what now..." "Keith... You're... Morphing..." She breathed in awe. He turned back to the computer screen, it's reflection proving the girl right. Keith's skin was blotching a tan and violet camouflage. The lavender peices were slowly fading.

"What the?" He lifted his hands and watched as his claws retracted into an unseen sheath in his fingers. A minute of this later, the ears and claws had disappeared as well, and Keith returned to a human state. Pidge just stared at the transformation in frozen surprise.

"The energy the crystal transferred to you must not be permanent...Damn, how are we gonna explain this to the others..."

Keith whipped his head towards her, his eyes back to their sharp steely color.

"No!" He snapped, pausing out if guilt when Pidge flinched.

"Aha... Sorry... But no, we can't tell them yet, just please can we keep this a secret for now?" Pidge narrowed her eyes.

"We can't lie about this Keith, this is... Big. They need to know the truth!" She insisted.

"I know I know! It's just... I want to be the one to tell them, at the right time. With everything that has happened in the past day I don't think now is that good time." He reasoned. Pidge just glared at him before crossing her arms with a huff.

"I don't really think there'll ever be a _good_ time, but fine, I'll keep your secret, but you have to tell them sometime Keith."

"Thanks Pidge, that means a lot to me." Her annoyed frown turned into a smirk at his thank you. From there, they both agreed that the night had been long enough for them to sleep for eternities, and left for bed. Upon closing his quarter's door, Keith collapsed back against it, curling into a ball of short gasps and sweat.

" _Why, why, please why..."_

Back in the green lion's hangar, all was quiet for a moment, until the small scuttling of alarmed and very intelligent Altaen mice hidden in the vents scurried away...

. . . . . . . . . . . .

**_"Subject Q.B.E 2, codename angel, ready for injection." A wicked smile sliced through the smoky vision. The perspective shown portrayed two gleaming yellow eyes almost as sharp as the witches teeth._ **

**_"Please stop...." A voice whispered hoarsly._ **

**_"Begin." The vision shook at the screams. Suddenly, colors drained into a swirl, until everything was black. With a blink, eyes opened slowly, causing the dark to fade in shyness from violet light. The witch was speaking to a figure laying on the ground. Suddenly, black lightning piercing at the figure shattered the scene to peices..."_ **

Nara jolted in her bed, eyes ripped open in shock. She breathed heavily for a moment to try and calm herself.

" _It was just a dream, it was just a dream._ " The girl reassured. She reached the back of her hand up to wipe at the cold sweat that was gliding down her forehead now. Sighing in annoyance, she thrust her fist down into the mattress.

"G _od dammit now I'm going to have to relive THAT every night?!_ "

Flipping towards the wall, her hand brushed against a control panel. A holograph reading the time appeared.

" _1:30 am huh... Well at least that's half a night of sleep_ "

Nara turned off the holoclock and wrapped her body back into the covers. Yet, the pounding in her heart did not quell, only making the girl angrier and even less sleepy. She eventually gave up and just stared into the ceiling that she had already memorized the image of so well. Shiro's words soon surfaced in her mind.

" _If you need anything... Just let me know..._ " Nara snorted at the thought, coninuing to attempt to bore a hole into the ceiling with her eyesight alone. Yet, she couldn't argue she had slept pretty dang long with... Well... With him. Finally quelling her internal argument, she got up with a grumble and smacked at the door control, forcing it to slide open with a woosh. Nara quietly tiptoed across the hallway where she knocked on Shiro's door. Two... Three... Ten... Thirty seconds passed.

" _Well of course he's asleep... This was a stupid idea..."_ She was about to turn back into her room before hearing what sounded like a groan. Nara paused, straining her ears, until the sound came about again. It was coming from the black Paladin's room.

" _What the..._ "

Forgetting past argument with herself, she rested a hand on the door control. The door opened and closed with two swooshes as Nara slid quickly inside. She turned towards the bed and narrowed her eyes in worry. Shiro's eyes were closed, but his face looked... Pained. His teeth were clenched and his Galran hand was tearing fingerholes into his pillow from the tightness of his grip. The black Paladin's body shook violently for a second, but soon stopped as he let out a sort of wimper, a sound Nara never imagined to hear from him. She reached a hand outward to try and wake him, but froze midstretch.

" _He's obviously having a bad dream, if I wake him up he might do something he'd regret._ "

She racked her brain for ideas on how to help him, but only one idea came to mind, making her face light up like a cherry.

" _Damn I'm gonna regret this in the morning..._ "

The man twitched violently again as Nara slowly pulled the covers back (Thankfully he was in pajamas). Once he was still, and the only sound between them was his strained breath, she slid her form into the covers. Pulling them back into place, Nara reached a hand upwards towards his face, her fingertips brushing the shock of white hair where they had been plastered to his glistening forehead. She then lowered her palm to rest on his cheek. To her suprise, Shiro's trembling slowed down upon her touch. Her thumb continuously brushed his cheekbone, and his grip on the pillow relaxed.

"I'm here, it's okay, you're okay" She whispered, an echo of the same comforting words Shiro had told Nara her first day on the castle ship. His face mellowed out from it's previous contorted state, and she could feel the rise and fall of the sheets going slower than before. They both sat like that for awhile, Shiro asleep and Nara feeling loopy from lack of said sleep. She could blame that on her current actions later.

" _He looks so peaceful now... So perfect... So... Beautiful..._ " Soon, her eyes began to droop and the rubbing of her thumb slowed to a stop. The last thing she remembered before sleep overtook her were two strong arms wrapping around her form, one so warm and comforting in contrast to it's freezing counterpart.


	15. From What We Learn

_Lance was floating, suspended in a black abyss that stretched on and on, yet he was somehow... At ease. The blue paladin felt like he were drifting, just like he would in the salt waters near his home._

_"Home..." He thought. The words traveled through the abyss, resounding like a wave. Black swirled with blue, not a harsh cruel blue, but that you would imagine of a tropical sea, the woosh of waves glittering and beginning to roll his body back and forth. Liquid pattered at his skin, the rain he missed and longed for, causing the boy to hum happily. He was in paradise._

_"Paladin!..." A voice rang out from the farthest recesses of this artificial paradise. Something tugged at Lances body, making him open his eyes after his head brushed against soft sand._

_"Wha?..." He questioned. His mind was so... Muddled, like moldable wax._

_"Paladin... Can you hear me?" The voice was clearer this time. It was that of a woman, though Lance still didn't know of it's origin. He stood up in the sand, water droplets falling back to the ocean where the waves lapped at his ankles. He blinked at the scene around him, for the paladin stood on a small island of sand surrounded by the same bright blue water. Above him was a nebulae washed by red and blue, mixing into violet here and there, filled to the brim with so, so many stars. He stared in awe until the voice became more insistent._

_"Paladin... My cub... Please listen to me, you must focus."_

_"My cub? What... do you mean?" He asked silently in a daze. Lances gaze was pulled down towards where the voice seemed to develope an origin. He gasped, falling back into he water with a splash of sparkles. On the beach sat... A lion, or rather, a lioness. The lioness bore a pelt of sky blue, shimmering with ripples over its strong muscular body, and a shock of white ran from its chin to the bottom of it's underbelly. Yet, it wasn't the lion's presence or strange color that caused Lance to fall. It was the animals sheer size. The blue paladin figured the lion had to be taller than a construction crane, maybe even about the same size as blue... Wait... The lion flicked her tail in an amused movement as she felt Lance put two and two together._

_"Are you?... Blue?" He questioned in disbelief, slowly rising to his feet. The towering beast purred in recognition._

_"Yes my cub... I am the one you refer to as blue... I am your lion and you are my paladin." Her voice boomed outward like it was resonating, but not in a harsh way, more like the ripples a pond would make when disturbed with a thrown stone._

_"Woah..." Lance breathed. He slowly walked towards the lioness, his bare feet leaving indents in the sand, and she watched him do so with great intent, her large yellow orbs analyzing his every step. Lance paused once reaching one of her massive paws, for it was almost the size of a car, and his hand brushed hesitantly against her fur, softer than that of how he imagined a cloud. Many questions buzzed at his mind._

_"Why is she here, WHAT is she and where exactly IS here? Did... Something happen to me?..." He thought in panick, the foggy daze beginning to clear from this realm of his innermost thoughts._

_"Relax my cub, you are in what your kind refers to as a dream. Your body is safe with the other cubs but you have been injured." Lance backstepped from where he had been focusing on the lionesses giant claws to meet her gaze._

_"How did you... You can hear my thoughts?" Blue nodded slowly, purring in humor at his disbelief. Before he could question more, memories of the past events of that day began to return to him. Shadowy images, resembling that of a disturbed pool of water, a seemingly common theme in Lances mind, finally cleared like a stilling puddle under the shade. The pure terror and cries of pain within the images made Lance flinch uncomfortably._

_"So that really did happen..."_

_Suddenly blue snarled, causing Lance to jump back in fear. "Yes, the witch attacked you with dark magic, a power no mortal of this realm should even consider dabbling in..." She growled out. Lance just gave her a confused look._

_"Magic? Realm? What do you mean?" Blue's face seemed to relax before she shook her massive head. "I am sorry, it is not my place to discuss this with you..." She suddenly cocked her head to her side as if something were coming from behind. A slight snarl carved it's way around her maw once again. "... And it seems I have little time. Cub, Lance, you must listen to me, for what I am to discuss will break many laws and anger my sisters if they find me here in this form. I am not supposed to interfere, at least not yet. You must stop the being called Zarkon, for his plans will destroy everything." Lance struggled to understand the point of this._

_"But, we already know that! Please blue I need more details than that if you're trying to tell me something!" She growled slightly before quickly looking back again. "Voltron must not enter his hands my cub, if he controls us, he has a key to a power far greater than any of this universe. My sister's and I are not just mechanical beings, my cub. That is all I am allowed to tell you without reprecussions. Yet, I have come here to warn you not just of Zarkon... But also that trying times are ahead for you. Do not give up, for there is always hope in the darkness, remember that..." Her figure began to shimmer, some parts fading here and there. Lance felt her presence leaving._

_"No, wait, what do you mean trying times! Blue!" He yelled, but to no avail._

_"My cub... Do not fear... Remember that I am always with you..." Her voice gradually decreased until it resembled a whisper on the wind. Lance fell to his knees, head clutched between two hands. "What does that mean..." He questioned angrily to himself. Suddenly, a bright white light came rushing towards him, the voices of his friends calling his name, ripping him from the dream._

. . . . . . .

Shiro fluttered his eyes as he awoke for the morning. The visions that plagued his head during the night came crashing back, making Shiro groan softly in discomfort.

" _Another nightmare..._ " Flashes of red and violet slashed at his conscience, causing him to further grumble in discomfort.

" _Gah... And here I was hoping they were getting better..._ " He attempted to stretch with a yawn but immediately froze, his eyes widening with newfound awareness at the dip in his bed. Shiro wasn't alone. With his vision adjusted to the now activated light of the room, he peered down at the mass in which his Galran arm was draped over, sucking in a breath upon realizing who it was under a mass of hazel hair.

" _So she couldn't sleep after all either..._ " Nara's face was completely at peace, no contortions of pain or fear present. Shiro watched her form rise and fall under the covers, a slow wave of fabric, and he found he really couldn't bring himself to disturb the girl.

" _How could I interrupt this... She's so... Calm..._ " For the first time in so long, Shiro felt... Content. It's as if he were back on Earth, before the Galra and his scars, no apprehension as to what's going to happen, no fear for his life, just the two of them, here and now. With his human hand, he brushed a stray lock of hair that fell between her eyes.

" _The two of us..._ " Heart fluttering, Shiro felt his face warm at the thought. He attempted to move his Galran arm, not knowing whether she would really appreciate them... Well... Cuddling, but ended up cursing as the movement caused her to stir. Nara slowly shifted her head back and forth, shifting in the sheets before her eyes fluttered just like Shiro's had. She glanced upward before locking onto his form. Shiro gave a chuckling rumble of his chest at the absolutely comedic face of shock that warped Nara's expression as she quickly pulled away from him, leaning up on one arm. Shiro couldn't help feeling a loss from the warmth being taken from his side.

"I... I... Sorry, I um... Not to just randomly be here... I just." She stammered quite shyly, a stark contrast to her outgoing personality. Shiro smirked at the girl's trouble and decided to help her. He leaned up on his arm until he was resting upright against the wall.

"Well, good morning to you too, I'm assuming you couldn't sleep again?" He questioned, cutting off the girl's stuttering rant. Her face grew cherry red, only further adding to Shiro's amusement. She furrowed her eyes and began to study the wound up sheets.

"Yea basically..." Nara paused for a moment before continuing. "I was planning on sleeping on the floor, but, you looked like you were in... Pain. So I thought I would try to help..." She explained rubbing the back of her neck. "Anyways, are you okay?"

Shiro's eyes widened in suprise.

" _Was it really that obvious that I was having trouble?..._ " He decided to change the subject, unwilling to discuss it at the moment, or ever for that matter.

"Cmon." He moved around her, placing his feet on the floor and sat at the edge of the bed. "Lance will be waking up soon, we should go meet with everyone in the dining hall." He noticed out of the corner of his eye that a questioning expression rose on Nara's face at his blatant ignorance of her own question. He also chose to ignore that as well, for however rude it may be, he just wasn't ready to talk about it. With a sigh, she got out if the bed and left the room with a slight smack of the door control. Shiro watched her go until the door closed, then allowed his eyes to travel to the floor. He didn't bother moving from the bed for a moment, his hand tracing through his white shock of hair.

" _She's not the monster on his ship..._ " He looked down to his accursed Galran arm, an attachment that Shiro loathed oh so much. " _I am..._ "

. . . . . . . . . . . .

After Nara went back to her quarters to change from her pajamas, her and Shiro walked to the dining hall. To his surprise, Nara neither brought up nor questioned the man's rigid tone this morning, she simply walked forward, watching the path ahead with a sharp gaze of oak colored steel. Once they arrived, they both immediately noticed the hall was completely empty.

"Where is everyone?" Shiro thought aloud, looking to Nara. She just shrugged in response. Suddenly, Hunk came sprinting in behind them.

"Ah-hah, there you guys are! Listen, Lance is coming out of the cryopod, like right now!" He huffed. Shiro cocked both eyebrows up in shock.

"But I thought he needed more time!?"

Hunk shook his head, still wheezing out of breath. "Coran checked him this morning, said his bioscans were optimal or something, point is he's healed well enough to come out early." He explained. A large grin plastered Nara's face. "Well what are we waiting for, lets go!" She exclaimed.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Nara and the two paladins came sprinting to the med bay and skidded to a stop upon arriving. Allura stood with Coran at the center dias of the room inspecting a holographic picture of Lance's form while Keith and Pidge stood in front of the pod itself.

"Did we miss anything, how much longer?" Hunk questioned frantically while jogging to the front of the pod. Nara and Shiro stopped behind him.

"You're just in time, he should be out any tick now" Allura explained in a joyful tone. Hunk turned his head back to the pod, plastering his face into the glass. "Cmon, cmon..." He muttered. Nara glanced over to where Keith stood with his arms crossed. He would have looked completely devoid of emotion if not for the light tap of his forefinger up and down giving away his concern. She furrowed her eyebrows in understanding at his impatience, for bioscans were great and all, but she _needed_ to know for sure... Suddenly, a heavy weight was placed on her shoulder. She turned to see Shiro's smiling face, knowing that smile could always force her to return the same action. Suddenly, the both turned in suprise as the cryopod opened with a swish of glittering sparks.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Keith and Hunk quickly caught Lance before his body slumped to the floor. "Uuungh... Where... Guys?" He questioned quietly, his eyes still closed. Everyone gave whoops and hollars of joy.

"Ah ya buddy you're alright!"

"We knew youd pull through!"

"It's great to see you're alright"

Lance nodded in an exhausted motion to every statement given. Finally, he lifted his head and opened his eyes and everyone froze.  After sharp intakes of shocked gasps, the room fell completely silent, Keith and Hunk almost dropping Lance in surprise, a shadow of dread overtaking the tone of the med bay. The blue paladin stumbled a little at this before straightening his form with a confused expression plastering his face.

"What was that for..." Lance faltered before chuckling slightly. "Oooh wow, I didn't think you guys would have such a sense of humor! I mean Hunk and Pidge maybe... Haha, alright alright you got me, jokes over, you can take the blindfold off." He laughed. Nobody was laughing. Nara raised her hand to her mouth to cover it in horror.

" _His eyes... Oh God his eyes_ " Lances wide eyes were surrounded by a web of violet strands traveling through his skin, ending just below his cheekbones and eyebrows. He had no pupils, his irises taking up his whole cornea, a disk of swirling black and violet.

"L... Lance..." Keith finally breathed, cutting through the silence. Lance furrowed his eyes. "What?" He questioned innocently, reaching for the back of his head to pull at the blindfold, yet, he froze upon realizing there was in fact no blindfold. He looked up in shock at no one in particular, just the wall of the other side of the room.

"Guys? This... Is a joke, right?" He said in a hesitant chuckle. Pidge let out a sharp sob, causing Lance to whip his head towards her, but he was unable to locate her form so he just ended up wildly looking to the floor. "This... Isn't real... Right, please, it's not real?" He asked in a voice catching on the back of his throat. Shiro, choosing to be the angel of death out of all of them, finally walked towards Lance. They all watched in sorrow as their leader placed a firm hand on the blue Paladin's shoulder.

"Lance... I... I'm so sorry..."

Lance furrowed his eyes in anger now. "What Shiro, sorry for what?" He demanded. Shiros eyes slitted in the upmost broken sympathy.

"I think... You may..." He looked to Coran and Allura for help but they both just shook their heads, completely at a loss. Turning back to Lance, he landed the final blow.

"We think... you could be blind."

.     .     .     .     .     .

Sometimes in our lives, there are these pinnacle moments that define how we perceive right and wrong, and how we act on it. These events can make it feel like your very being has crumbled, as if reality just wants to do everything it can to work against you. As for Lance, if you have ever felt everything in your life crash down into one moment, that pinnacle event that forces you to grasp your innermost insecurities, then you understand how he would be feeling right now.

"B-blind?" He stammered. Shiro nodded only to tense up, realizing the boy wouldn't be able to see.

"Yes... Lance I'm... We're so sorry..." He had so much trouble finding the right words, after all it's not like someone could be equipped for this, nobody knew what the hell to do. Lance looked somberly towards the ground at his leaders apology, shocked into complete silence. Next to him, Keith's face contorted between so many emotions at once in a relentless motion, from panic, to fear, then eventually to anger, so much anger his face almost seemed to match his jacket color. Nobody moved fast enough to stop him as he marched right up to Coran and knocked him back against the center dais.

"You said he would be fine! YOU SAID HE WAS ALRIGHT!" Keith seethed, gripping the collar of Coran's coat with the intensity of a feral beast. "Keith!" Allura snapped, stepping forward, but Shiro beat her to the punch. With a quick wrench, Keith was thrown backward to the floor, releasing his lock on Coran. All the poor Altaen could do was watch Keith with utter disbelief and confusion, not intended for the paladin but more for himself. "The scans, they read that Lance was recovering, that his eyes would heal, and they still read that, even _now_." He murmured to himself. Shiro looked with concern from Coran down to Keith, his face switching to an anger that seemed like a foreign expression it was so rarely plastered on their gentle leader's face. Keith sucked in a sharp breath at meeting his leader's eyes, for the red paladin rarely ever saw his friend so indignant, and to be quite honest it... scared him.

"Keith, this isn't Coran's fault, there is absolutely no reason to turn on him. We should be working together to figure out how to help, not turning on each other." Keith nodded in a shaken stupor from where he still sat limply on the floor, completely at a loss for how to respond.

" _Why did I... Thats not me... I would never purposely hurt Coran, or anyone else..._ " He thought in horrified confusion. Eyeing Keith cautiously before moving, Allura strode slowly towards Lances catatonic form, the others watching her with shocked silence. As gently as the princess could manage, she lifted Lances chin towards her face, causing Lance to flinch in suprise at the sudden touch.

"There is dark magic at work here... Something that the cryopod possibly cannot fix..." She breathed, inspecting the wide purple spheres that encompassed Lance's eyes. Next to her, Pidge shook her head, her fists wound so tightly her skin color resembling snowballs.

"THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS MAGIC, WHATEVER DID THIS TO LANCE ISN'T SOME MYSTICAL ENERGY!" She cried out.

" _Pidge..._ " Nara thought with a hand still covering her mouth. In front of her, the raging girl started to shake, tears falling like a gray rain from her red face.

"Lance should be okay, it's so simple, the cryopod should have fixed him, those were the readings, the science behind them is sound, he should be okay!"

"Pidge, that's enough." Shiro said in a defeated tone. The green paladin looked up to her black teammate with widened, betrayed eyes. She shook her head again, and with another frustrated yell, stomped out of the room.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

The next couple of quintents were... quite difficult to say in the least. Through intensive and careful studies by Allura and Coran, they deduced that Lances eyes really were affected by the dark quintessence of Haggar's magic.

"It's not a physical wound, so to speak, but more of something you consider like a spell." Allura explained softly. Lances opaque eyes were locked onto the ground, for he refused to even try to find his teammates presence. He was alone with Allura and Coran in the med bay, in literally any other instance Lance would have been eccstatic about being almost alone with the princess but... Not now, not this time.

"How long does it last?" He questioned quietly. Lance heard Coran take a deep breath to his left and noticed a sliver of light shift in the corner of his vision. The blue paladin had learned he was not in fact completely blind, for he could tell shadows from extremely bright lights, but it honestly wasn't much of a help considering how dim the castle really was on the inside.

"Days, weeks, years, possibly even... For the rest of your life. We honestly can't tell, the medical instruments on our ship aren't advanced enough to analyze a wound caused by magic like this." Coran said sadly.

"But we will find a cure, we promise Lance." Allura quickly interjected.

" _Yea...Right.._." Lance slimmed his eyes further and with a push of his hands got up from the table he had been sitting at. He felt a feather light touch on his arm but shied away from it.

"No, I can find the way" He insisted. Lance could literally feel Allura's concerned yet sympathetic gaze boring into him. He hated it, hated feeling so... Useless. With a great amount of concentration on slivers of light here and there, the blue paladin managed to slowly find his way out into the hall without incident.

" _They shouldn't have to baby me, I can suck this up_ " The thought if his friends pitying him made his heart clench so badly that tears stung in his eyes.

" _I already mess up everything I try to do enough, they shouldn't have to worry about me, I just... Need to not show it bothering me... It's not like too much has changed, it's just a little darker... Yea..._ " With a refirmed huff, Lance straightened and walked with as firm of a resolve as he could manage towards the lounge, but no amount of confidence could heal his broken heart.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Shiro, Hunk, and Keith sat with pin drop silence in the lounge, not really knowing what to do with themselves. Nara didn't come to Shiro's room last night and had been nowhere to be seen all day, and Pidge had managed to lock her lab with some sort of contraption constructed out of spare parts. Nobody bothered to try and break in, after all, she was young, Shiro figured Pidge would need time to cool off and her lab was the best spot for the girl to do just that.

"So, what now?" Hunk muttered wringing his hands together in his lap. They couldn't exactly accomplish any team bonding exercises without Lance, therefore the paladins were free to do whatever they prefered right now. Shiro inhaled deeply at Hunks question.

"We remain patient and hopeful, Allura and Coran are working around the clock to find a way to help Lance so for now we wait." Hunk nodded slowly while Keith remained silent next to him with his arms crossed. He hadn't said a word since the med bay incident yesterday. At that moment, the sliding door opened behind them and Lance came stumbling in.

"Hey guys, heard you from the hall-" He tried to say as nonchalantly as possible before tripping on the step near the door. Quite unceremoniously, Lance fell onto his face with a loud SLAM. "Lance!" they all exclaimed at once while Hunk jumped up first to assist their friend. Lance quickly rose to his feet and rubbed at his nose as he backed away from his friends attempts at help.

"I-it's okay I got it." He stammered, trying his best to laugh off the fall.

" _He's been blinded and he still trys to make everything a joke..._ " Shiro thought miserably. As team leader, he felt just about completely responsible for the boys condition. He should have been there to help, but after all, that must be how they all felt right about now.

"Cmon Lance, do you wanna come and get something to eat with me?" Hunk asked quietly with tears at his eyes, this time his hand more insistently reaching for the boy's arm. A wounded look flashed on Lance's face at his friends touch before he cracked another smile again.

"S-sure buddy, let's go" He muttured with another break in his voice. With that, Hunk led Lance slowly out of the room towards the kitchens. Shiro watched them go with a solemn gaze before turning to the red paladin who still remained seated on the couch. He looked like someone had slapped him.

"Keith, are you okay?" The black paladin asked as he took a seat next to his friend. The red paladin's eyes flickered towards Shiro but soon went back towards his gloved hands, unable to meet his leader's concerned gaze. "Yea, I'm fine" He whispered quite unconvincingly, now twiddling his thumbs together. Shiro gave another deep sigh as a moment of contemplation for what he was about to say.

"I'm sorry for getting mad at you in the med bay, it was a tense situation. I know that's not the normal you Keith, you would never do anything to harm anyone you care about. So... I'm gonna ask again, are you really okay?"

Keith gave a long breath before finally lifting his head towards the black paladin. "I don't know how to face this Shiro, I..." He hesitated for a moment to collect his thoughts, thankful for Shiro's patient nature. No matter how much he trusted the black paladin, there was no way Keith could tell Shiro everything that had happened in the past day or so, but he could at least give him some of it. After all... He was family.

"I promised him I'd bring him home safely. He misses Earth so much Shiro, he feels so guilty about his family and I promised him like the _idiot_ I am that I'd bring him back okay." He gritted his teeth so badly with each passing word that they could probably grind rocks to sand. Shiro was his best friend, just like a brother to the red paladin, but he absolutely refused to cry in front of him, refused to give such a sign of weakness. "I don't know why I said that but I promised I'd keep him safe and I already failed..."

Shiro's hard gaze turned from suprise to a sickening sympathy. It made Keith's stomach curl whenever he did that, like a child being comforted for making a stupid mistake they couldn't help making.

" _Not to mention I'm one of the monsters that took Shiro, took away a year of his life and tortured him for it... Do I even deserve to be his friend?..._ " Just the thought of his other ghastly half pushed Keith over that teetering edge of tears. He felt a metal hand on his shoulder and flinched away involuntarily as he batted at the tears. The red paladin noticed a hurt look flash over his comrades face before quickly being replaced again with a sad frown.

"Keith, you can't blame yourself for what went wrong. A promise like that can't always be kept no matter how hard you try. I know Lance doesn't blame you, you know he would never do that, but I think you both should just... sit and talk things out if it really bothers you though." With a smirk into the sleeve that was currently wiping at his eye, the red paladin's thoughts travelled back in time, back to the garrison, a time before voltron and Shiro's disappearance that was so much easier to live through. Keith's life had been extremely fucked up when Shiro had found him, but the black paladin had shielded the boy from his past as best he could, no matter how much Keith pretended to resent it. He always wondered why someone as wonderful as Shiro had bothered with trying to help a poor orphan boy that was overtempermental and constantly getting into trouble. Keith felt like he never deserved it, but now, he honestly probably could never be more thankful. Shiro had saved him before and here he was now, still around to do it again. Keith didn't deserve to be here.

" _I'm a monster_ "

He didn't deserve the comfort.

" _He'll hate me if he finds out_ "

With a sharp intake of breath, Keith did what he always did best when in an emotional state, he walked away. "Thanks Shiro, that... Means a lot to me." He muttered with a solemn smile before heading towards the door. To his suprise, Shiro didn't say a single word to stop him.

. . . . . . . . . . .

With a loud crack and a yell of fury, the gladiator bot's face met with Nara's sharp kick. The sparking head went flying like a football, making a loud clang against the far wall. For the past hour, she had been in here beating the absolute crap out of the gladiators to try and subdue her anger at herself. The same words swirled in her head like a never-ending whirlpool, toying with her emotions, pushing them over the brink.

" _You should have been faster_ "

The raging girl's next opponent soon fizzled into place, holding a pole that was ready to swing at any second.

" _You could have saved him_ " She gritted her teeth and flipped out of the way as the bot took it's first swipe.

" _You failed AGAIN... What would Andrew and Neil think?_ "

With a shreik of anger, Nara punched at an opening with all her might, and if the robot had any sense of conscience it would have known that it met a worse fate than any of it's predecessors. With a loud riiiiipppp of circuitry, Nara's hand punched straight through the robot's chest with a burst of purple energy. Her veins were lit as bright as her ferocity, but whether it be out of sheer stubbornness or idiocy, she refused to use the devices full power. Nara pulled her hand free with a quick motion, successfully scraping it on the metal, making an open gash run the length of her wrist. The faint sting of pain was just that, faint, a joke compared to the agony clamoring in her body. Another robot down, and she felt no better, the burning in her chest still everpresent, clutching at her like a clamp on her heart. She lowered her head to the floor with an excessive amount of deep breaths.

" _Why couldn't you save him, it's all your fault Nara, his life is forever dark and it's all your fault._ "

"SHUT UP!" She shreiked again at her conscience, falling to her knees a sharp sobs wracked at her body. "Shut up, please, shut up." She mewled softly this time, shaking her head back and forth repeatedly as her hands clung to her temples. The tears flowed hot like a river of lava over violet strands embedded in her skin, a constant reminder of what she had become.

" _I... What do I do... I'm more of a threat to their safety than any help I could offer..."_ Through her broken emotional tantrum, Nara could barely make out a voice calling to her until a white-gloved hand was placed lightly on her shoulder. She slowly turned her head, her cloudy eyes trailing up the arm until they met with the face of a sad mustachioed man. His voice was much clearer this time.

"Nara, what is it, whats wrong?..." Coran asked quietly with an insistence in his tone. With another sharp sob, Nara swatted at her tears in embarrassment. She hadn't meant for anyone to see her like this, but what could she expect in a place as public to the team as the training bay. Then again, she was pretty thankful that it wasn't Shiro that found her.

"C-Coran, hey... Just letting off a little steam from the mission..." She answered with a miserable excuse for well... An excuse. She heard the Altaen sigh before helping Nara to her shaky feet. Her legs felt like gerlatinous stubs that may give out any second.

"You know, I can't help if you don't tell me what's wrong." He said in an attempted comforting tone. Nara eyed him carefully as she wiped the tears remaining around her eyes with a snivel before giving a defeated sigh of her own.

"It's my fault Coran, I should have been faster, I could have stopped her faster, I could have _saved_ him." Coran cocked his head to the side in an almost comical expression.

"And yet you did, you brought him back alive." He stated matter-of-factly. Nara gave a mocking snort.

"Keep talking like that and you'll sound just like Shiro in no time." She muttered. Coran shook his head in exasperation before leading the girl to a bench situated in the wall. She sat down with a wince upon finally feeling the now sharp pains in the cut on her wrist.

"We'll take care of that later, for now you should just listen" He said with a plop down onto the bench. Nara shook her head again, knowing the lecture that was coming. "You know Coran, I already got this speech from Shiro, I don't-"

"Ap-ap-ap nope-" He interrupted with a finger against Nara's mouth before continuing with "-I was simply going to tell you a story." The girl raised her eyebrow in confusion, but figured that under the man's stern gaze she wasn't going anywhere soon. With another deep breath she heaved an "alright" out. After a nod of approval, Coran crossed his arms over his chest and closed his eyes.

"When you first came here, Allura mentioned how we were asleep for ten thousand years, yet, she never mentioned the circumstances as of _how_ it all happened." Nara grew ever more confused. "But, wasn't it just cause the Galra invaded Altea?" Coran nodded but then immediately proceeded to shake his head.

"Yes, that was why, but it wasn't _how_ it happened." At this point Nara just figured she would be bewildered at the whole point of this until Coran finished this extended tangent. Regardless of her cluelessness, the man continued with a twist of his moustache.

"King Alfor, Allura, and I were all situated onto the bridge of the castle while the invasion ensued. Allura begged her father to use the lions to fight Zarkon, but he knew it was hopeless. So instead, Alfor put Allura into a deep slumber.". The memory was still fresh in his mind, as if it were just quintents ago rather than thousands of years...

_**"King Alfor, what are you doing?!" Coran yelled before being shaken by another blast against the particle barrier. Alfor looked to his advisor with an expression that cracked Corans heart. It was a face of defeat.** _

_**"Coran, you are my most trusted advisor, I need to ask this of you. We have lost, Altea's destruction is eminent, but Allura MUST survive." Corans eyes widened in shock and despair as realization overtook him. "But sire, we can still fight..." Alfor simply shook his head, confirming the mans worst fears that clutched at him like hungry claws. Coran didn't want to accept failure to save their home, but it really was inevitable.** _

_**"Our forces are gone Coran, the remaining paladins killed by Zarkon, I am all that is left. I will confront Zarkon, giving the castle enough time to wormhole out of here, the coordinates are already set and the lions have already scattered." Coran sucked in a gasp before turning to the control panel, only to learn the castle was in fact ready to wormhole out. How did he miss that?** _

_**"But sire, I have sworn to protect you as your advisor, please, there must be another answer, Altea needs you, ALLURA NEEDS YOU" He begged before being shaken by a blast at the particle barrier. Alfor's gaze simply softened further at the mention of his daughter.** _

_**"Coran, please, Allura will need a guardian when she wakes, I am asking you to do this for me." Another blast shook the castle again, but it was nothing compared the the rattling of Corans heart. He was completely devote to the crown, and leaving Alfor, Altea... It wasn't something he could accept. Yet, deep down he knew the king was right, there was no other way.** _

_**"Sire... It's... Been an honor" He stated with a deep bow illuminated by the flames behind him. Alfor nodded in response with a deep smile. This was the first order Coran had ever wanted so badly to disobey with all his might, but he still complied with all his heart.** _

_**"Go now, hurry!" The king exclaimed. Coran scooped Allura into his arms before running to the med bay, Alfor following in their wake. The castle was moving now toward its takeoff point into the oblivion of space, Alfor had little time. Coran froze when the king needed to turn a seperate direction towards the hangars. He hesitated, stealing one final glance at his only daughter.** _

_**"My memories are downloaded into the castle... At least my knowledge can remain behind to protect her." He brushed a lock of hair out of Allura's peaceful slumbering face before turning away from her and Coran. "Thank you Coran, for everything, keep her safe... I am sorry..." He said one last time before running to the hangars.** _

"After that, I took Allura to the cryopods, and Alfor... distracted Zarkon long enough for the castle to escape. I remained awake to ensure it survived the journey before landing on the planet Arus, and then entered stasis myself. The rest, as you earthlings put it, is history." Nara gazes at Coran in an odd mix of awe and sadness.

" _Alfor gave his life to protect what chance they had left..._ "

"Coran... Why are you telling me this?" She asked in a quiet tone, hoping to avoid offending the man after pouring out so much emotion towards her. Coran gave a deep exhale as he wrung his hands together. "I could have stopped Alfor, could have tried and force him to come with us. I regretted that so badly, and still do every day of my life, but, where would we be without his sacrifice? I could have tried but... My actions would have been in vain." Nara contemplated this for a moment. Her hands soon twitched in annoyance.

"So what are you saying, that Lance was just a needed sacrifice? For the greater good? Thats bullshit-"

"Nara" Coran snapped in the sharpest tone she had ever heard the mustachioed man use. It honestly suprised her badly enough that she just shut up, completely dumbfounded. "What I'm saying is that I could not make Alfor's choice for him, nor you Lance. Lance _could_ have ran, _could_ have hidden-" He stuck our a finger and jabbed it above her chest. "- but he chose to stay behind and try to help you, to protect you, just as Alfor did all those years ago." He got up with a graceful gallop and proceeded to pull a long white handkerchief out of a hidden pocket of his jacket. Regardless of Nara's protesting noises, he insistently placed the cloth over the cut on her wrist. "Nara, my point is, no matter how much we want to, we cannot make choices for those around us. And the choices they make, they are not always our burden to bear. Shiro is right you know, what happened to Lance is nobody's fault, it was his decision, so I just ask you to stop blaming yourself." After patting down the fabric, he rose and began to waltz toward the door in a very Coranly manner before giving one final turn. "Besides, a life lived regretting others choices is one not worth the pain, just try to focus on that." Nara continued to remain silent as Coran left her alone again in the training area. She just... Stared straight ahead, not really knowing what to do with this new outlook on the situation. Her tight grip around the cloth on her wrist loosened to a slack.

" _It... It was Lances choice... But why does that feel more like an excuse of it not being my fault?_ "

Nara sighed before rubbing at her wrist again.

" _No, h_ _e's... Right..._ "

Shaking her head in complete amazement, she got up off of the bench and stretched before looking towards the door Coran had just left through.

"Thanks Coran" She said aloud to nothing in particular, but she had a pretty good hunch the man already knew of her gratefulness towards his speech, the first thing to truely comfort her ever since returning from that accursed jungle.

 

. . . . . .

Allura strolled down the hallway towards the bridge in deep thought. " _What will we do? We cannot form Voltron without Lance... But how could we cure him? Oh father, if only you were still here, you would know what to do..._ " The scuttle scuttling of mice quickly interrupted her internal argument, and the princess halted to a stop as the mice ran so fast towards her that the largest of them all tripped and caused them to fall in unison and roll into Allura's feet.

"Oh dear! Are you all quite alright?" She questioned worriedly as she crouched to the floor, beginning to pick the mice apart. A ferocious amount of squeaking answered her as they proceeded to untangle from each other. With a shake of it's head, the blue mouse was the first to truly communicate to her, and Allura's ears tweaked at the quick squeaking of the mouse, barely able to catch it's frantic explanation of what the mice apparently saw two quintents ago in Pidge's lab. Allura straightened completely stunned, her ears jerking upward.

"WHAT?! Keith a Galran?! That's- That's preposterous!" She exclaimed. All of the mice squeaked in argument at her rebuttal, insisting that their accusation was true. Allura simply whipped her head back and forth in disbelief. "No, that is impossible, he is a human, after all the Galra hadn't been to their planet before, its not possible! You all must have gotten into the numvil last night." She said in a firm, unmoving tone. Keith may be impulsive and quiet and albeit slightly secretive, possibly, but not Galran. Allura simply continued to shake her head at the mice as they began to bounce up and down urgently.

"I am sorry my friends, but this is no time for this... Sick joke. I must find a way to assist Lance." She straightened and stepped over them, ignoring some nonsense about Pidge being involved in this, this unethical lie. With an annoyed huff, she continued towards the bridge, ignoring the angry chirping of her few friends remaining from the princesses lost home.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

The next couple days were wraught with tension. Everyone tried to act as if things were normal, as if Lance were fine, but each time he dropped a fork or ran into a pillar was a stark reminder of his condition. The paladins did their best to assist their friend, that is, everyone but Keith. He kept his distance, avoiding the blue paladin as best he could. Shiro tried to talk to him about speaking with Lance again, understanding the source of his avoidance,but the red paladin just brushed it off. After all, how could Keith face one of the only people left in his life that he failed? With a tired huff, Keith rubbed his face with a fluffy white towel situated around his neck. He was adorned in his boxers with intent to spend some much needed self to self time in the pool that Allura had decidely just informed the team of it's existence. Yet, as he passed the hall door leading to the green Paladin's hangar, he froze, thinking of the pulsating crystal situated in the lab.

" _Maybe... Maybe the transformation was just a fluke? Maybe it affects everyone like that, or its a one time thing?..._ "

With his fleeting hopes guiding his feet, the paladin turned on his bare heels towards the hangar. As he approached the crystal, thankful that Pidge had finally left the confines of her lab yesterday, he hesitated, realizing the idiocy of his hopes.

" _This is stupid.._." He thought with a frustrated huff. Yet, the paladin couldn't deny the curiosity gnawing at his gut. He wanted to know for sure... Needed to. The crystal rested just inches below his fingertips, its humming energy seemingly reflecting off Keith's palm.

" _Would just one touch have the same effect?..._ "

After taking a worried glance at his surroundings, the paladin made sure he was alone and prayed he would remain so. With a refirmed breath of confidence, Keith pressed his hand to the crystal. It vibrated like a heartbeat, it's power warm alive under him. The effect wasn't as destructive this time, but more like a wave of heat washing up his arm throughout his body. Thankfully his form remained in one spot this time and not blasted halfway across the lab.

" _Did it..._ "

Keith hesitantly looked toward the computer, wanting to approach it while at the same time dreading the thought. As his reflection appeared on the screen, the boy's worst fears were confirmed. A violet face adorned with fluffy ears and eyes that shone like a sunset stared back at him. With harsh pound on the table with his fist and a swift fall to his knees, Keith clutched his head with his free hand in dismay.

" _Why... Why me..._ "

A stinging pain itched near his forehead as a newly grown claw cut his skin. A drop of warm blood trickled slowly down the length of his temple, stopping just near his ear. Before the red paladin could wipe away the evidence and sit in silence long enough for the effects of the crystal to wear off, the door suddenly whizzed open to his left. Keith watched in horror as, out of everyone on this goddamn ship, Lance was the one to approach him. He was adorned in boxer shorts as well, probably having the same intentions as the red paladins about going to the pool. After all, Lance seemed to be at his calmest state when in, or near, or even just talking about water.

"Hey, is anyone there?" He asked cautiously.

" _Maybe I should just stay quiet, he won't be able to see me.._ "

The thought both relieved and gnawed at him like a coyote at a carcass. He sucked in a sharp breath as Lance sighed in annoyance. "Well, I know someone's here, unless Pidge built a computer that could breathe."

" _Damnit_ " Keith was caught. Glancing at the computer screen again to confirm he was still in this form, Keith rise with a shake to his knees. "Ah... Hey Lance, sorry I thought you were Pidge, I was... Borrowing something from her." Lance looked quite suprised that it was actually Keith in the lab. After all, they hadn't spoken since... Well since the mission, and that was a couple days ago now.

"O-oh, hey Keith... Ehrm, whats up?" the blue paladin stammered quietly. Keith gave a quick gulp, not really knowing how to respond. It's not like he could tell the truth, so he told a bit of it.

"Dah ah... Well, I was about to go to the pool, but I heard a clang in here and came to see if Pidge had hurt herself."

_"Cmon stupid Galra form, you can fade away now, please!"_

Lance quizically hummed to himself, his mouth forming a frown. "Didn't you come here to borrow something?"

" _Shit_ "

"Aha, yea, well when I was already in here... I was going to borrow a towel for the pool..." Keith quickly explained. Lance gave an "oh" shape with his mouth, making Keith stare in disbelief that the paladin would believe such a stupid lie. Lance seemed to shuffle on his feet before speaking again, asking the one thing Keith had been dreading to talk about.

"So... How are you... After everything, I mean, we haven't really spoken since..." Keith once again gave him a dumbfounded look, followed by a comedic drop of the paladins new ears at the question.

" _He's fucking blind and he still asks about how I am._ "

"I... Uhm..." He stammered. Being social wasn't necessarily a strong suit of the red paladin, aggression and impulsiveness yes, but small talk? God no, especially not in this situation.

" _How am I? I'm a monster so..._ "

"I'm fine... How... How are you, with... Everything?" Keith internally cursed at himself upon realizing the implications of his question. What the fuck was wrong with him, Lance wasn't fine, he was nowhere near fine, in fact he probably couldn't be worse off. But it was with these thoughts in mind that made Lance's answer all the more shocking to Keith.

"Eh... I mean... It could of course be better, but I'm still trying at least." Keith just stared, almost forgetting his still furry state of body. Lances voice still sounded saddened beyond measure, but not like his whole life was destroyed by the person standing before him, not like it did when he came out of the cryopod. Least to say, it... Confused Keith.

" _Shouldn't he be angry at me, yelling at me... Blaming me?_ " He wondered. Lances shake of his head pulled the red paladin out of his perplexed imagination, and before Keith could do anything, the boy was walking towards him.

"C'mon, you said you were heading to the pool right?" he asked with a smile. Lances arm lifted toward Keith fast enough that he didn't have time to step away. His mind ran into panic mode like a rocket straight into a wall.

" _Nononononono!_ "

But it was already too late. Lances blind hands ran hesitantly, as if he were trying to find his way, from Keith's bare shoulder down to his forearm. "Cmon let's-" Lance said before pausing, a puzzled look shadowing his gaze that wasn't really fixated onto anything per se. Yet, it seemed to find a mark on Keith's arm that was now being rubbed by the pad of the blue paladin's thumb. Keith sucked in a sharp breath, not knowing what to do.

"Keith... Why are you..." He back stepped away from Lance's hand, but the boy simply held on tighter, making a grip that would probably leave bruises, but that wasn't an issue currently. So, Keith simply froze from panic as Lance turned his body so their chests were parallel, his other hand trailing forward to find Keith's other bicep. A moment of terrible silence, then another passed, and another until it became unbearable, until Lance finally spoke.

"Keith, uhm, why are you fuzzy?" His tone was more comical if anything, so close to the normal Lance that Keith knew and... Cared about. He tried to think of any excuse, literally anything, but his mind failed him. "Did something happen, did Pidge spill some alien weird gooey shit on you? Maybe we should go get Coran..." Lance started to say.

"NO!" Keith shouted a little too harshly in further alarm. Nobody could see him like this no matter what, at least not until he was ready. He had to tell the truth now... There wasn't really any other way around it. After all, Lance was watching him pretty expectantly now, or at least the general vicinity of his face. Yet, how could he even word this? "T-this isn't Pidge's fault... It's um, I'm..."

" _God why was this so hard!_ " Running his hand through his thick mop of hair and stopping at the base of his... Cat ears...,Keith gave himself one more reformed huff before finally spilling the truth.

"I found out recently that... I may be... part Galran..." He whispered.

(Who's ready for some Klaaannncceeeee)


	16. Emotions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally what you all wanted, and trust me there's muuuuch more to come huehuehue

_Tic... Tic... Tic..._

Each tic that passed felt like an eternity, the silence stretching ooooon and ooooon forever. Keith remained deathly still as Lances grip on his arms relaxed, and he watched in confusion as the boy began to giggle nervously.

"Heh, riiight, and I'm part Altaen, good one Keith, you know Hunk was startin to believe you didn't know how to crack a joke."

He continued to chuckle as Keith felt the heat rise on his face, his fingers clenching into his palms as he tried to find some retort to spew back. Lance's giggling fit ended long before he got the chance.

"Aaaahh, that was pretty good, you know I haven't laughed like that since, since before, well yea..." He said in a hushed voice that perked back up as he continued. "But in all seriousness, why are you fuzzy-"

"Lance"

"I mean Pidge must have spilled on you-"

" _Laaaaaance_ "

"I mean theres no shame in hiding it unless its permanent-"

"LANCE!" Keith yelled at the top of his lungs right into the paladins face, stopping the boys rambling on the spot.

"I. Am. Not. Joking. I really am... Galran, or at least half." Lance just shot Keith a puzzled look, as if he were trying to put two and two together but failing miserably.

"But, thats not possible, I mean you're pale and pasty, not purple and well raawwrry" He replied, baring his teeth like fangs and making a clawing motion with his hands. Keith burried his clawed hands into his fuzzy face in frustration.

" _This is definitely not how I imagined this going..._ "

Before Lance could make another objection, Keith promptly suprised him by grabbing at Lances wrist. The boy let out a slight yelp as claws dug into skin, but it was quickly replaced with further shock as Keith proceeded to wrench Lance's hand above his head and release his hand onto his scalp with a _plop_. The red paladin could feel Lances hesitant fingers travel around the fuzzy ears and he bit back an angry hiss, because for some ungodly reason, his ministrations actually felt _good_.

"Keith... Are these... Ears?..." Lance whispered quietly, now rubbing both his hands on the ears potruding from his comrades head. Keith simply nodded in response as Lance's fingers suddenly halted.

"So you... And the claws... You were telling the truth... You really are Galran?..." Keith just nodded again, unable to create coherent words in his head. He was afraid, terrified of what Lance's reaction would be, if he would hate him for it. He watched with blurred eyes as Lance quietly pulled his hands back to his sides, a completely emotionless action. As Keith stared into Lances eyes, an oceanic blue reduced to a cesspool of darkness, Keith shook his head feverently.

"Lance, I'm so sorry, I've known since we got back from the mission but I didn't want it to be for sure, I can't help it I promise I didn't know, there was this Galran who said some things to me and Pidge and I decided to test if it was true and -sob- and..." Oh God he was actually crying now, right in front of Lance of all people. What if he told everyone? They would probably send him off in a pod in space...

" _And then I would be alone again..._ "

The sobs wracked at his body now, and Keith was unable to form coherent sentences except for the occasional word here and there. He could feel a shift in the skin of his head now, probably his ears growing back down.

"P-please _sob_ don't hate me, I'-m sorry I'm _sob_ so sorry-" 

Lance didn't say anything through the boys monologue, he just stood quietly with a stoic look plastering his face. Keith lowered his eyes in shame, ready for the loathing, all the pain that would come when Lance would run and go tell everyone. But, to his complete and utter shock, that would never happen. Instead, Lance spoke in a tone that shook Keith straight to his core.

"So what."

If the red Paladin's ears hadn't faded away, they would be perking straight up right about now.

"What, what the hell do you mean so what? I'm an ALIEN Lance, I'm the same species that tortured Shiro and Nara, I-"

Lance gave him a glare that would have been a bit more menacing if his eyes could actually find Keiths.

"That doesn't matter, I mean yea this is HUGE, but don't you dare blame yourself for being different, you're not the one who did all that stuff, you're still Keith."

"But I-" He tried to interject, but Lance wasn't done.

"I don't care if you're the son of Zarkon himself, which would be pretty wierd and ironic... But thats not my point. It doesn't matter what your skin color is, what matters is you're the red paladin of Voltron, got it?"

This was so wierd, it was nowhere near the reaction he had expected from Lance, Keith had readied himself for yelling and fear and loathing for what he was, not... Comfort. He wiped at his tears as he tried to find the right words to answer with.

"I... I... I don't know what to say..." Keith muttured, blinking a couple times to try and ground himself to the reality of the situation. Lance was accepting him, he wasn't angry at all. Keith's heart fluttered as Lance reached out towards him again, the red paladin accepting the touch, now a warm comfort against his human skin.

"Cmon, it's cold in here, I'd rather deal with the thought of you being a furry alien in the pool rather than in here."

The nonchalance in Lances voice made Keith chuckle for the first time since before the mission, a time that felt like ages ago. He paused as the blue paladin began to walk away.

"Hey Lance? Listen, I-im not really ready for everyone to know about this yet, so could we keep this quiet, at least for now?"

To Keith's relief, Lance gave a small nod of understanding. His smile was a bright white shining against the purple that now snaked around his face, even with such an injury his grin was still stunning. Keith knew right there and then he would follow that smile anywhere.

. . . . . . . . . . .

As it turns out, the pool wasn't exactly like that of Earth's kind, mostly for the fact that the water was suspended by four, large floating pillars halfway between the ceiling and the floor. The water was a clear blue reflected by the azure color of the lights embedded into the pillars, casting a faded glow around the giganic room.

"Well, what's it look like?" Lance asked, for the room was too dark for him to see with his blinded state.

"Grr, stupid Altaen pools" Keith grumbled. Lance's hand squeezed around Keith's, causing a flush of heat to travel through Keith's body. He had been forced to take Lance's hand to lead him from the lab and still hadn't let go.

"What's stupid about it?!" Lance exclaimed.

"Ah well, for one thing, it's floating in the air..." 

"What? Holy Crow..." Lance breathed as he squinted to try and get a look at the pool, but to no avail. Keith watched him do so intently and became a little worried at Lance's action.

"Uhm, are you sure about this Lance? I mean, we'll need to be really careful... So that you don't, you know." Understanding Keith's implications, Lance shook his head with an annoyed expression.

"No amount of blindness is keeping me from taking a good swim, cmon let's-"

Lance started to walk forward, releasing Keith's hand to which the red paladin quickly tried to reach out and grab him. But he wouldn't have the chance, for once Lance stepped past a white line curving around the floor, a shot of water flew down and sucked him up.

"LANCE!" Keith yelled in terror. He watched in horror as the blinded boy was swirled around in the gelatinous mas of water like a wet rag. His shock quickly turned to amazement as Lance kicked powerfullly towards the surface and his head quickly broke the top with a loud gasp.

"Quiznak, what the hell?! That was AWESOME! Come on up Keith, there's enough light for me to see the pillars." Keith eyed the white line warily before edging his foot slowly over the border. He let out a sigh of relief as nothing happened.

"Heh, sorry Lance, looks like its not gonna-WAHG" Keith was quickly pulled up by a swish of water, meeting the same fate as the blue paladin. He kicked towards the surface and breathed in heavily as his mouth reached air while Lance cackled maniacally next to him.

"Ooohhh man I wish I could have seen that, it sounded hilarious!" Keith gave Lance a glare he knew the boy wouldn't be able to see, but still stared daggers regardless. Lance's face contorted into suprise and betrayal as Keith promptly splashed him in the face.

"Heh, what was ao funny again Lance?"

"Ooohoho it's on mulletface."

. . . . . . . . . . . .

A splash battle of the centuries ensued between the boys for the next ten doboshes. Lance attempted to dodge underwater but Keith was having none of that and swam under after him. He heard a sharp yelp as Keith grabbed and Lances ankles, flipping him in the water. The blue Paladin's head broke the surface moments later in a fit of heavy gasps.

"Hah, thats, hah, not fair! I can't see where I'm going!" Lance exclaimed, yanking Keith to the surface right in front of him. His mullet slapped the boy as Keith appeared in a fit of giggles, completely unnatural compared to his usual persona.

"Hey you could have still escaped!" he gasped between laughs. Lance gave a pout before trying to grab at Keith's wrists again.

"Ooohhh no you don't, Lance noo" Keith said, knowing of Lances intent to dunk him.

"Lance yessss" he hissed in a giggle as Keith fought against him. Between the boys playfullness and physical contact, it was understandable that a line would eventually be crossed. That line was broken when Lances leg suddenly surged upward, brushing against a more private part of his teammates body. Both the boys froze in realization and an awkward silence overtook the pool area.

"Uh-um, s-sorry about that." Lance whispered, bashfully turning his face to the side as it went beat red.

"Oh, i-it's fine, don't worry..." Keith muttered, his face cherry red as well now.

They both slowly paddled their legs in uncomfortable silence before Lance's grip slackened on Keith's wrists. Keith felt his eyes travel back upwards, taking in every detail of the blue paladin,s flushed body, the way his shoulders hunched up, the way he bit his lip when he was nervous, and god was that cute.

" _He really is... Kind of adorable_ "

In any other instance, Keith would have been horrified at the thought, but Lance was so close now, the atmosphere had shifted around them. He felt like he could finally work up the courage to ask that million dollar question that had been eating away at him.

"Do you blame me? For what happened to you?..." He finally breathed out hesitantly. There, it was out there, no matter Lances response, there was no turning back.

The blue Paladin's violet eyes widened a moment before slimming downward.

"Is that why you've been avoiding me? Because you blame yourself for what happened?"

Keith, once again suprised by Lance's attentiveness to detail, nodded slowly in response. He sucked in a sharp breath as Lances hand travelled the length of the red paladins arm, halting at the base of the boy's neck.

"No, I don't"

"You don't?"

Lance shook his head, water droples trickling down his wet mop of brown hair.

"Keith, how could I blame you for anything?"

It was Keith's turn now to avert his gaze.

"Because I promised I would bring you back alright, and I already broke it..."

Lance let out a soft "oh" in response before speaking again.

"You know, just the fact that you made that promise, well, it's more than enough for me." He whispered, inching a little closer to his teammate. Lance bit his lip again, a question of his own buzzing at the back of his thoughts.

"Keith... That day when you found me in the med bay, you said you cared about me... Did you mean that?..." He asked in a tone so soft any light breeze would have carried it away. Yet, each word pounded at Keith's ears like a drum, etched into his brain as he tried to proccess the question. They were both so close now, each touch a dizzying electric shock through the both of them.

"I... I... Uhm..." The air was heavier now, each breath a bit more labored.

The red paladin never was good with words, so instead, with a quick glance at Lances lips, he chose to close the distance.

"Mmph!"

Lance gave a muted breath in shock at Keith's action, but quickly melted into complete acceptance of the kiss. It was slow, a torturous pace as Keith continuously brushed against Lance's soft lips. He tilted his head to deepen the contact, recieving a soft moan in reply from his friend (could he even call him that anymore?) that made the boy's heart soar. They began to slowly peck at eachother at an unhurried pace, Lance dipping his head to the side to meet Keith's demanding mouth. The red paladin could feel hands trailing up his spine and twisting in the hair at the base of his neck, sending shivers through his whole body. In response, he pulled Lance closer, slotting their bare chests against eachother, earning yet another broken moan from Lance that seemed to vibrate against his lips. It was over too quickly, but Lance remained close, oh so close, each movement brushing against their swollen lips.

"So I'll take that as a yes?" Lance smirked through heavy breaths. Keith gave a soft chuckle in response.

"Hah, yea, best answer I could give at least..."

"Hell yea it was" Lance whispered before diving back in again. The kiss was hotter, more hurried this time, picking up to a new intensity. Keith parted his lips wider, his tongue running against Lance's lips. Everything was too dizzying for him to realize what was happening, how Lance accepted Keith's tongue with no resistance and the uncontrolled moan that escaped him as Lance began to bite softly at Keith's lower lip. He ran his hands up and down the blue paladin's lithe body as Lance wrapped a leg around Keith's just below his ass. The action caused them to both stay barely afloat, but they didn't care, all that mattered was the soft moans and wet sounds of the boys lips against eachother. After a heated doboshe or two, Keith pulled away, his body warm and pink against Lance's.

"This, hah, probably isn't the best to be doing hah, while swimming." Keith huffed out of breath.

Lance simply nodded before pulling back a bit, his arms still wrapped around Keith's waist.

"Is... Is this okay, like us?" Lance whispered.

Keith contemplated that for a moment and came to an answer much faster than he intended.

"Yea, you know what, I think so."

. . . . . . . . . . . .

From there on, to everyone except Shiro's suprise, Keith spent most of his time assisting Lance with his condition whenever he could.

"Did you guys, like, make up after a fight or something?" Hunk questioned to the both of them.

"Ah... Yea something like that." Keith smirked, making Lance's violet cheeks blush next to him. Pidge, who was sitting next to Hunk and knows all and sees all, immediately saw Lances face go red in the mix of purple, and gave a mischievous grin of her own.

Least to say, regardless of Lance's condition, things were getting back to normal on the castle ship, or mostly at least, for does anything ever last?

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Shiro and Nara had been sparring in the training room for about 30 doboshes when the alarms whent off. As everyone gathered in the bridge, they were relieved to find the castle actually wasn't in any immediate danger.

"Pidge had rigged the alarms to sound whenever there would be any Galran cruisers within our long range scanners, I am sorry for causing you all alarm." Allura apologized.

"It's alright princess it's always good to be prepared." Shiro answered for the others.

"That's right, we must always be ready for an imminent attack, thus explaining the purpose of Pidge rigging the alarms." Nara glanced to her left to see a beaming little girl adjust her glasses before she spoke.

"Well, what kind of ship is within range?" She questioned.

Coran typed in a combination of keys before a screen showing a large Galran shipment frigate appeared.

"It seems to be, as you earthlings say, run-of-the mill shipping cruiser, most likely a quintessence shipment." Coran noted aloud.

"There is no point in alerting the Galra of our location for something as small as that, we should keep a wide berth and continue on our path." Shiro stated.

The other paladins nodded in agreement, more than happy to avoid a fight. Everyone was then released for the night, returning to their respective quarters due to the lateness of the evening in Earth time. Pidge, Lance, Keith, and Hunk, (Lance and Keith a little red faced) all said their respective goodnights before disappearing into their quarters. At the end of the hall, as Nara placed a hand on her door lock, Shiro promptly cleared his throat.

"It's good to see you able to sleep on your own, that's a good sign."

Nara turned and flashed him a warm smile. It had been three days since they had last slept in the same room and Nara was proud to say she had had only one nightmare, she was certainly appreciative of her conversation with Coran, that's for sure.

"Yea, it is... Thank you, for helping I mean." Shiro returned a smile of his own, a small blush dusting across his scar, and with a nod of acknowledging, he disappeared into his room for the night.

. . . . . . . . . . .

The next quintent was, least to say, much rougher then recent past. Lance was having an especially difficult day, and even with Keith's help managed to trip to the floor and hit two other pillars in the halls. It was certainly giving him and Keith a somberly frustrated tone for the quintent, one that would understandably crack their patience at some point. 

"Hunk, how goes your culinary experiments, I would assume well considering how delicious the food is?" Allura questioned at lunch with intent to bring up a subject for everyone to talk about.

"Mhmp, it's been fantastic! Ive been mixing these pink nuts to create a seasoning for the blue nexturine meat that Coran showed me." He explained through bites of the blue meat.

"Well it's fantastic Hunk, great job." Shiro said between bites, causing Hunk to light up in appreciation. Nara gave a chuckle at the boy's obvious delight, for it was pretty adorable to see him light up like a christmas tree. That smile faded though when she noticed Lance was having a bit of trouble cutting the meat. She was about to say something until his spoon met with his cheek, causing the boy to drop the utensil. It fell with a loud clang to the floor. Nara and the others watched with sadly furrowed brows as Lance just buried his face into his hands.

"Damnit damnit damnit, sorry guys, it slipped..." He muttered in a broken apology, his hands running back and for through his hair.

"Hey, its fine we can get you a new one..." Keith said, trying to remove Lance's hands from his head.

"You can't get me new eyes right?" Lance whispered, settling a tense silence over the table. Keith's mouth fell open in suprise at Lance's question, and before long he began to grit his teeth. 

"Uhm... I- I'm sorry guys, I shouldn't have said that... I didn't mean it..." The blue paladin muttured in a half attempted apology.

Nara reached an arm over and began to rub Lance's back. She didn't notice Keith give her a glare from the other side of the blue paladin.

"Hey, you don't need to apologize it's alright-"

She flinched back as Keith slammed a fist down.

"How the HELL could you say he's alright?? He's fucking blind!!" He seethed. Nara fixed a cold stare towards him, gripping Shiro's arm to stop him from standing at her left. To Nara's appreciation, he remained quiet.

"He's alive though, that we're at least lucky for" She tried to reason in a monotone voice. Keith felt his blood boil at her words, so simple, yes they were lucky, but... Lance wasn't okay, he was hurt, Lance was in so much pain, one of the only people he cares about is hurt.

" _How dare she, she doesn't even... How could SHE understand what he's going through_!!"

He clenched his fists, readying one final shout as the pot of anger boiled over.

"HOW COULD YOU SAY THAT, IT'S YOUR FAULT THIS HAPPENED IN THE FIRST PLACE!" 

Keith regretted the words the moment they left his mouth.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

 

There were so many things in Keith's life he wished he did differently. He wished he could have saved his mom, kept Shiro safe from the Galra, not get his ass booted from the garrison, but from the looks everyone gave him right now, he regretted the past five seconds the most.

"Keith..." Shiro breathed.

The red paladin would prefer anger over the gaze Shiro was giving him from over Nara's shoulder. He looked so... Ashamed, they all did. Even Lance looked towards his figure in shock.

"I... Nara no I..."

His words caught in his throat as she smiled, actually smiled at him, nowhere near a happy one though. She gave a smile that would fit someone who just had everything taken from them, had nothing left to lose. Her eyes met the floor, that sickly smile opening up to form words.

"It's okay Keith, I understand why you would think that." She murmured. With the eyes of everyone boreing into her now, Nara calmly pushed back her chair, and turned to leave the room, no tears, no yelling, just silence.

"Nara wait-" Allura started before Nara raised her hand towards her.

"No, it's okay, it's... Fine." She finished with before hurriedly walking towards the halls. After her figure disappeared, Allura glared at Keith so sharply that he, the tempermental, strongheaded pilot of the red lion, was forced to look away.

"Keith... You know that it wasn't her fault" Hunk spoke up first, annunciating every word.

Shiro nodded towards him, but then turned back to Keith, giving him a look as if he were something the paladin had to deal with, and not his teammate, his friend.

"Why did you say that?" Was all he asked. Keith's wide eyes looked towards Lance, who still hadn't said a single word.

"Keith look at me" The red Paladin's gaze wrenched towards their leader, completely at a loss for words.

"I-I didn't mean it I swear... I'm so sorry" He breathed.

 _"I know it wasn't her fault but why, WHY did I say that._ "

Allura stepped forward from her chair and swept around Shiro, coming right up to Keith's face.

"I do not think it is us that you owe an apology to" She said sternly. Keith gave a small gulp before nodding. He couldn't face all those looks of disappointment anymore, they were choking him, drowning him in guilt that he wished with all his might he could take back. He couldn't take it anymore.

"I'll go apologize." He whispered before turning on his heels. Everyone stayed quiet for a minute or so watching the red paladin go, that was until Lance lept up to follow him. Nobody tried to stop either of them.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Nara's boots made small clacking sounds that echoed around the halls as she strode towards her room, but it was nothing compared to the booming noise of her thoughts.

" _It's only a confirmation of what you already knew..._ "

She was an adult, almost 24 years old (how depressing to think she would spend a birthday in space), but here Nara was now, almost stomping down the hallway like a broken child throwing a temper tantrum. She was no leader, no rolemodel, just a hollow shell of a human being. The dread was an everpresent weight on her shoudlers now, permeating every orphus of her being. It terrified her to know that such simple words could completely destroy every wall she had built up.

" _That's all I am right... Am I a failure or just straight up broken..._ "

Nara paused her mindless rant upon passing the main door to the bridge. The image of the frigate that had come up on the scanners earlier was still there, casting a shallow violet glow against the washed blue of the room. When her eyes landed on the image, visions of her rescue resurfaced in her head, when she dropped into the red Paladin's arms, running past the blurry quintessence pods.

" _Wait_ "

She glanced down at her hand in curiosity now, watching a ripple of violet pass over sealed skin where the cut on her wrist had been just barely a quintent ago.

" _If quintessence can heal me...maybe it could do the same for Lance!_ "

She began to formulate a plan, and with a hesitant sweep of the room to make sure it was empty, she crept up to the main control panel, zooming in on the many different numbers around the ship's holographic image. She may not have been number one in her class, but Nara was still one hell of a pilot and understood coordinates when she saw them. Not to mention, she had observed Pidge's work, and understood the basic innerworkings of how to use the holomaps. With a few holokey taps and a gracious smirk later, the coordinates were zipped into one of the crafts in the hangar.

. . . . . . . . . . . .  
  
"Keith wait" Lance tried to reach out into the air around him, knowing Keith was inches away from the sounds his boots made and the heaving of his breath, but Keith just kept on going.

"Keith wait, stop, will you just stop for ONE MINUTE." 

With an angry huff, Keith finally whirled around, Lance basically bouncing off the smaller boy.

"WHY LANCE, WHAT DO YOU WANT TO HEAR, ARE YOU GONNA ASK WHY I SAID THAT TO HER? WELL HERE'S YOUR ANSWER, I DON'T FUCKING KNOW." Lance paused for a moment, proccessing the red Paladin's loud rant for a second.

"I-I..." He stammered helplessly. Keith just shook his head in frustration, grippin his mullet with one hand.

"God, sorry, I didn't... Mean to yell, I just got frustrated, she didn't understand... I need to be alone for awhile."

He tried to stomp off, but a hand reached out and gripped his shoulder.

"We don't hate you, you know, at least I don't..." Lance whispered. Keith sucked in a breath, his anger fading towards guilt at how he was going off at the one person who knew the truth, and accepted him for it. It was too much, his emotions were running wild, it was all too much to proccess. He needed to leave before he made things worse.

"Thanks Lance" Keith muttered quietly before doing at recent what he did best, walking away. He felt his heart snap one string at a time with each step, for he knew he had hurt Lance, but what was there to be said?

" _I would probably just make it worse anyways_ "

He didn't know whether to be relieved or happy when Lance didn't follow him.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

After stomping along for awhile, punching a wall here and there, Keith had finally calmed down enough to go and face Nara. The only problem was though, she was nowhere to be found, not the training room, the dorms, the kitchens, anywhere.

"Dammit" he cursed. His mind was creaing worse case scenarios that only Hunk would believe at this point as to what could happen to her, but they were all put to rest upon passing the hangar door. Keith heard a small _swooosh_ as he passed the large open door, and peered in only to find Nara climbing into a cockpit of one of the small ships.

"Nara? What are you doing?" He asked, jogging up to the cockpit, fear and guilt replaced more with curiosity. She gave a small yelp of suprise and fell from the side, only to ungracefully be caught by Keith. With another squeak, she flipped out of his grasp and landed next to him.

"K-keith, what are you doing here?!" He crossed his arms with a cocked eyebrow.

"I would ask the same of you." He retorted, immediately feeling bad for using such a tone considering what had happened earlier.

"Uhm, I'm... Cleaning, I saw that they were dirty and didn't want to head back to my quarters just yet." She hurriedly explained, Keith once again raised his eyebrow in disbelief, glancing at Nara's space suit, but she continued regardless. "Besides, you still haven't answered _my_ question." She finished with a cross of her arms.

"Uh, well..." Keith stammered rubbing at the back of his mullet. Apologies weren't really his strong suit.

"I just wanted to say i'm sorry, for what I said earlier, what happened to Lance isn't your fault, tensions were rising and I just kind of... Needed to snap." He watched Nara blink in suprise for a moment or two before he stammered on.

"What happened to Lance wasn't really anyone's fault, it just... Hurts to see him like that, but... I also want to thank you, for bringing him back alive." He finished in a whisper, his face turned abashedly to the side. After further silence his eyes glanced upward to meet hers, and he was suprised to see a warm smile on her face.

"Thank you Keith, that means a lot to me to hear that."

" _More than you'll ever know_ "

She walked forward and pulled him into a hug, once again to the Paladin's further suprise.

"I know Lance means a lot to you, and I will do everything in my power to keep him safe." She muttured. Keith reciprocated the hug for a drawn out moment before they both pulled away.

"Nara... I know I'm not as old as you or Shiro, but I can still tell when people are lying." Nara tensed as he finished his question. "What are you really doing here?"

She watched him for a second, contemplating her next action. Would Keith sell her out? No probably not, but how would he react, would he want to come with?

" _I haven't been recharged in a LONG time... Some extra help may be wise._ "

"I'm going to the frigate to steal raw quintessence, if it can heal me then I think it could do the same for Lance." Keith's arms fell to his sides in shock, not at the girl's actions or blunt honesty but more her resolve. Taking on a whole frigate, that took some balls.

" _So she really was serious about helping him_ "

"Then I'm coming with you." He said matter of factly with a turn towards the hangar doors. Nara nodded in approval.

"I figured you would want to, go suit up"

He began to jog out of the hangar but came to a stop at the double doors.

"If we're doing this, we're taking red"

. . . . . . . . . . . .

  
"I just don't get it, he's never acted like this before" Shiro wondered aloud as the group remaining from dinner headed towards the bridge.

"Maybe it is his earthly time of the month, Pidge informed me they come with heightened emotional states?" Coran asked pointedly. Pidge couldn't help letting out a burst of laughter as Hunk and Shiro's faces lit up red.

"Aahh, Coran thats not really how it works, see only human girl's get those, plus guys really don't talk about them" Hunk stammered awkwardly. Coran raised an eyebrow in curiosity as he waltzed along.

"Hmm, what is the matter with speaking about it? It sounds like an extremely interesting piece of human anatomy, blood excreeting from the body in order for fertilization to occur-"

"Okay that's enough of that." Shiro commanded in an exasperated tone, giving a pointed look like " _we're talking about this later_ " to Pidge as she giggled uncontrollably. In response the green paladin just shrugged as Allura cleared her throat.

"Shiro is right, we should be speaking about something important, like our next plan of action." Coran sped in front of them and proceeded to walk backwards to face everyone.

"-Which is to stop at the Granular nebulae, I have been inspecting the teladuv and it appears some of the skulltrite lenses have cracked."

Those of them who were human just gave Coran puzzled looks. Coran sighed in annoyance before continuing to waltz along.

"You see, quintessence is converted by the castle into energy, which becomes highly concentrated when we make a wormhole jump, becoming a beam that reflects off the skulltrite lenses, the only substance strong enough to reflect the energy, but they have cracked under stress and must be replaced if we ever wish to make a quick escape by wormhole. The Granular nebulae is our best bet to have any left."

He jolted as the group reached the bridge doors, running backwards into a pillar.

"Coran is correct, we can only hope that-" Allura stopped upon noticing the control console. To everyones suprise, she broke into a jog towards it.

"Princess, what's wrong?" Shiro asked, coming to a stop next to Allura.

"Someones tampered with the control console, I did not leave it like this!" She exclaimed. After a few taps of the holokeys she sucked in a breath.

"It appears that someone has transferred the coordinates of that frigate we had passed earlier."

"To where?" Hunk questioned. The princess clicked a few more keys before a picture of the red lion appeared.

"They've been transferred to the red lion, and the lion is gone!" Shiro narrowed his eyes before clicking a key to the left of the panel.

"Keith, hello, do you read, is this you in the red lion?" Static filled the line until Keith's voice finally came online with an image of him and Nara in the red lion's cockpit.

"Yea it's me, Nara's here with me too"

"Hello" She said with a little wave. Shiro narrowed his eyes once again in vexation and crossed his arms.

" _It's good to see they're okay but..._ "

"What are you guys doing? Bring the red lion back here now." To everyone's shock, Keith proceeded to shake his head in ignorance of their leader's command.

"No can do Shiro-" Nara suddenly cut in from behind him.

"Keith's right, we'll be back soon though, besides he's got a chaperone." A red bleeping suddenly surrounded the cockpit to which Keith soon cursed at. Nara tried to fake a reassuring glance towards the screen.

"We gotta go, see you guys later, just don't worry we will be fine I promise."

"No wait!-" Allura started, but with a staticky swish, the screen disappeared from existence.

"How could they be so reckless!" Allura exclaimed angrily as Coran tracked the red lion's position.

"Maybe they're just out for a make-up flight?" Hunk stated with a hopeful shrug. Sadly his assumption was put to rest by Coran as the red lion appeared very close to the galran ship's location.

"I can't pull them up on coms, the signal is being jammed by the ship, they're too close!" Shiro pulled his hand up to his chin, resting his other hand in his hip.

"Why are they going there, is there something about the ship they're just not telling us?" He thought aloud. Allura shook her head in bewilderment.

"I don't know but either way we must bring them back, if the ship relays a signal back to Zarkon then he will find us!"

Shiro put his hands of his hips.

"He won't get the chance, let's suit up team and bring them back!"

Hunk and Pidge made noises of agreement and turned to go get their paladin suits on. As they turned down the hallway, neither noticed Lance walking in the opposite direction, and would never know he had heard everything that had just occurred. 

. . . . . . . . . . . .

A slow hum drummed at Lance's ears as he sat in front of one of the blue lion's massive paws. He had stumbled there in order to be alone. Lance needed that right now, especially after what Keith said to him earlier.

" _WHAT DO YOU WANT TO HEAR?_ " kept ringing in his head. Lance brought a hand up to his puffy cheek, pulsating beneath his touch.

"I want to hear that you don't have to worry about me..."

He was so useless, so inconsiderate, so... Miserable. It was bad enough being the seventh wheel of the team before the incident, but now... He felt like dead weight, especially with Keith risking his neck for them.

"Please, if anything out there can hear me please, just give me a chance to help..." he whispered.

Lance's whole life had been a rollercoaster of ups and downs. Being part of a large family living in Cuba didn't exactly raise a lot of interest from the garrison towards him. Lance had always had to work hard, go the extra mile just to achieve the minor things that seemed to come to others around him so easily. When he had finally gotten into the garrison, only to learn he was good enough to be just a simple cargo pilot, it crushed him. But then, _he_ came along, the mullet at the top of their class who spoke to nobody but somehow succeeded in everything he touched. Lance was so jealous of him, but at the same time aspired to be him. Now as paladins of Voltron, even as just friends, Keith had become so much... More. He was his rival that made him feel valued and his friend who cared, a feeling that was invaluable to someone like Lance. But when Keith goes the length to help him, to protect him in his own fucked up way, it crawled in Lances skin like a scarab. He understood Keith was just caring about him, especially considering what had happened at the pool, but he didn't want the pity. Lance wanted to show he could do this, do things on his own, because that's all he's done. Of course his family had his back, and he loved them more than anything, but Lance worked for what he earned by himself, and feeling so useless would only continue to eat away at him.

"Maybe I'm just not meant for this." He muttered miserably, digging his face into his knees.

" _You feel undervalued, but you are more than you realize_."

Lance's head shot up so fast it caused a sharp crick in his neck.

"Who was that? Who's there?!" He demanded, rubbing his neck as he rose to his feet.

" _You don't remember my cub, allow me to change that..._ "

Lance cringed and held his head as a flood of memories smacked at his brain. He saw everything, the ocean, the nebulae, blue's whispy form speaking to him. He had forgotten the dream he had in the cryopod.

"Urgh, blue I-Im so sorry I don't know why I forgot..."

He felt a rumbling purr of amusement vibrate his skull.

" _You have been through great trauma, it is understandable._ "

Lance let out a breath of relief until all of his questions came back to him as well.

"Blue, didn't you say you would get in trouble somehow by speaking to me?"

" _Only if I appear in my true form, my sisters and I are all linked to your minds, but I am simply the firsf to choose to speak with you, this form of counication breaks no rules._ "

"Rules? What rules?" He further questioned, wondering how much the blue lion was willing to give away as he sat down onto the cold metal floor. He felt her grumble in annoyance at his thought.

" _That is a question I regrettably cannot fully answer. I simply implore you to understand what I said before, I am not a being of this universe, therefore direct physical means of communication brings about... Complications for our prescence here._ "

Lance just nodded his head again, focusing his gaze on the two bright breams of her eyes that shot through the darkness of his perspective like arrows of sunlight. It was comforting to see her watching, or to see _anything_ for that matter.

"Blue... Why me? You say that all of the lions can talk to us like this but nobody's ever mention you guys actually speaking."

" _And why did you choose me?_ "

Blue gave another purr that almost seemed to massage his body into a state of relaxation.

" _You doubt yourself-_ " Lance gave a curse upon remembering she could hear his thoughts as Blue continued " _-My cub, please do not fret upon your self worth. Our destinies were preordained long before your existence. You are meant for greatness as my paladin, and were chosen as it for a reason, you are worth more than you will ever know. As for why I chose to speak with you know... It is because I felt your pain, your suffering called me forth. I could not stand idly by as my cub suffered._ "

Lance widened his eyes in awe for a moment.

"We were... Chosen to be together?"

Blue rumbled again in agreement, and Lance could hear the scrape of her tail against the bay floor as it swished back and forth. He reached out a hand and rested it on her paw.

"Thank you" He whispered contently. It was comforting to hear such praise from a being that was obviously above all of them. He felt a prescence nuzzle at his conscience, making everything peaceful and perfect for a single moment, until he heard a familiar launch alarm.

"The others must be going after Keith and Nara" He muttered. He could feel blue's thought of agreement in his head.

" _We should join my sisters_ "

"How would we do that, I can barely see, unless the galra suddenly became a luminescent species..."

" _You can see through my eyes._ "

Lance jumped to his feet, looking to blue in shock.

"What, how, youre telling me I could have seen through you this whole time?!" He exclaimed.

" _You preformed an exercise in an attempt to see through me many cycles ago, do you not remember that as well?_ "

Lance pursed his lips, looking to the ground in embarrassment.

"Ohhh yea, right"

Blue gave another rumble of what Lance assumed was laughter.

" _Allow me to show you how to truly see through the eyes of a lion..._ "

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Nara slid her hand away from red's alarm system as the communications screen blipped off.

"Great thinking on getting them off our backs" Keith commented, continuing to lead red towards their destination. Nara simply nodded in acknowledgement to his praise.

" _They're gonna be so pissed at us..._ "

"Whats the plan for getting inside, I didn't exactly have one that included a lion."

"Red can only jam the ships radar for about a minute so we'll have to be quick." Keith explained, flipping a few switches to his left. "From there red can claw out an entrance under the ship, with their radars jammed hopefully they won't be able to scan a breach unless someone sees us."

"Sounds like a plan"

They approached the ship slowly and Nara prayed nobody would look out a window. They reached it without being blasted at and the red lion gave a small jolt as her claws sunk deep into the ships underhull. Nara stumbled slightly as she pulled up a scan of the halls just beneath where they landed.

"Looks like theres a small two-way hallway just above us, most likely the best spot for us to seal off from the enemy." Keith gave a nod in agreement.

"Alright, better hold onto something." Nara barely had time to grab the side of the piloting chair as he jabbed the right joystick of the lion forward. In one fell motion, red promptly lifted her head and jammed it straight into the hull of the ship, the air shuddering her form as it escaped. Her maw opened with a dull _swisshhhhh_ as Keith and Nara crept out from beneath her teeth with their helmets activated.

"Looks like both doors are closed, we should seal off one." Keith noted.

"On it." 

With a wave of her arm a strand of violet curled around Nara's wrist. She flicked her hand upward and a plate shot forward into the control panel left of the large vaulted door to the right of the red lions giant head. Keith gave an impressed nod with his brow raised that simply made Nara snort in amusement, which quickly became a labored breath as she slid the quintessence back into place.

" _It's getting tougher and tougher to use every time_ " She shook the thought out of her head and focused on the problem before them, ignoring Keith's concerned gaze on her.

"Now then" She started. "You should stay here and guard red-"

"Hold on, what?! I'm not letting you go in there alone, you need someone to watch your back." Nara held her temple in annoyance.

" _God we didn't think this through_ "

"Keith, we took one of the lions, we can't leave it alone. Just think for a second, if the Galra find red unprotected then we have literally handed them a piece of Voltron!" She implored him with all her might to understand but to Nara's further exahsperation, Keith continued to shake his head.

"Red will be fine, trust me, she will give me a sign if she gets into trouble. Besides we should hurry, the longer we stay put the more likely our mission will fail." Nara swore at his reasoning but finally gave into it. After all, she figured it would be wise to have someone with her since she was so close to a state of complete examination.

" _God we REALLY did not think this through..._ " She thought in frustration as they proceeded out the door.

"It looks like we're close to the hangars, the storage area should be close by, I remember from... The other ship." Nara explained softly as they sprinted along. Keith nodded and pulled up a mini map of their surroundings that his suit scanners were able to create. Nara paused at the corner of their hallway and peered around the corner, giving Keith time to examine the new map behind her.

"You're right, we're close to a large room, just down the corridor and to another left."

Nara motioned for him to be quiet, and then rolled forward after a group of guards crossed an intersection of the corridor. They both ran after the troop disappeared, only for Keith to tackle Nara behind a pillar jutting from the wall as another guard troop clacked by.

"That was way to close, why are there so many patrols?" He breathed.

"I don't know, but we should keep moving." She replied in a worried tone.

" _I can't let Keith get hurt too, not on my watch_ "

Nara crept around the red paladin and they both sprinted to the end of the hall, taking a left towards their destination. About twenty feet ahead of them, the hall gave another left turn into a small dead end containing a single door.

"Looks like this is it." Nara figured, pulling at a strap on a backpack fitted around her. Keith nodded in agreement.

"I'll keep watch, you go in a grab what we need." A flash of sparks poured between them as his beyard became a long red and white sword.

" _Besides, if I touch a single drop... I'm not ready for her or the others to know yet_ "

Nara nodded and then crept to the door, ignoring the creeping wonder in her gut as to why the door would be unguarded.

"Be careful" She whispered as it quickly oppened and already began to whizz shut. The last thing the girl saw was the red paladin giving her a quirky thumbs up before the door closed. With a slight chuckle she turned and took in her surroundings.

" _Jackpot_ " she thought triumphantly. The room was a cylindrical shape, cut by shelves all the way to a vaulted ceiling about 50 feet up. Each shelf was lined with quintessence pods no taller than to her hip, all of them filled to the brim with a bright teal liquid. Just above her was a platform held up by a smaller pillar in the center of the room, appearing to be meant for movement of the pods up and down the shelves. There was a walkway connected to it leading to another hall that Nara was too far down to see into, but she ignored that fact in order to get down to business. They had been lucky thusfar, but she didn't want to push it, so with a quick barrel roll, she landed next to the first pod resting in the shelf to her left. Her body hummed as she quickky took a deep breath, and forced three of her plates out of the device with great exertion. Sweat already began to trickle down her brow as she cut open the glass of the pod, allowing the liquid to pour out the soccer ball-sized hole until the surface evened out. She then relaxed, allowing the metal plates to slink back into her body, and then pulled the backpack to the front of her. Inside she had packed three small containment units, each about the size of a football. With a grunt, she threw each unit into the larger pod, allowing them all to fill at once, sucking in the quintessence and sealing it. They were pressed for time and cleanliness wasn't a current issue to her, so with a swift kick of a sharp toed boot, the glass cracked and the three pods came spilling out completely filled, along with the remaining quintessence and a mess of glass. Nara watched with little interest as it pooled onto the floor, packing the units back into the backpack.

" _Something's not right..._ "

Swinging the pack behind her, she gave a grunt of annoyance, for it was a bit clunky to carry, but she could manage.

" _This is too easy this is too easy..._ "

Her mind continued to buzz alarm bells as she rose to her feet. Something was wrong, or something had to go wrong, that's just how it worked. It's how every mission worked, nothing went off 100% without a hitch. Nara sucked in a breath as a swoosh sounded in the hall above her, confirming the girl's fears. She dove under the platform just as some figure strode from above. Her face quickly contorted into an expression of confusion.

" _Why isn't the guard's feet clunking with the metal?_ " She wondered. After sucking in a breath, Nara dared to poke her head out from under the pillar. Stealing a glance upward, she sucked in a squeaked breath and scrambled back into hiding as fast as possible. Broken flashes of violet immediately slashed in her head. Nara screwed her eyes shut as tight as possible as screams racked at her conscience, a ghost pain tingling down her spine. She gasped again as a white mask broke through the fuzzy visions, a hand lowering closer and closer to her face. The mask looked exactly the same as the one resting on the face of the druid that strode on the platform just above her.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you all so much I hope that you enjoy my story. I will be writing this story to the completion of the Voltron series, but with my own take on it. Therefore, this will have references to season two but not completely follow the story per se. Anyways thank you again for reading and I hope you enjoy:)


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